HISTORY OF THE JEWS HISTORY OF THE JEWS BY PROFESSOR H. GRAETZ VOL. II From the Reign of Hyrcanus (135 B. C. E.) to the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud (500 C. E.) PHILADELPHIA The Jewish Publication Society of America Copyright, 189.3, By the Jewish Publication Society of America. CONTENTS. V > CHAPTER I. JOHN HYRCANUS. The Crowning Point of the Period — War with Antiochus Sidetes — Siege of Jerusalem —Treaty of Peace — The Parthian War — Hyrcanus joins Antiochus — Successful campaigns of Hyrcanus against the Samaritans and Idumaeans — The Idumaeans forced to embrace Judaism — Destruction of the Samaritan Temple at Gerizim and of the Capital, Samaria — Internal Aftairs — The Parties : Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes — Their Rise and Constitution — Their Doctrines and their Relations to one another — The Synhedrion — Strained Relations between Hyrcanus and the Pharisees — Death of Hyrcanus P^^g^ i 135 — 106 B. c. E. CHAPTER n. HYRCANUS'S SUCCESSORS, ARISTOBULUS I, ALEXANDER JANN^US, AND SALOME ALEXANDRA. Character of Aristobulus — Antigonus — Mythical Account of his Death — Alexander Jannaeus : his Character and Enterprises — His Support of the Pharisees — Simon ben Shetach — Alexander's Breach with the Pharisees, and its Consequences — His last Wars and Death —Salome Alexandra's Relations to the Opposing Parties — The Synhedrion — Judah ben Tabba. and Simon ben Shetach — Institutions against the Sadducees — Party Hatred — Diogenes — Persecution of the Sadducees — Death of Alexandra page 35 106 — 69 B. c. E. CHAPTER III. HYRCANUS n. ARISTOBULUS II. Brothers contend for the throne — Arrangement between the Brothers — The Idumaean Antipater — Hyrcanus's weakness — Aretas besieges Jerusalem — Interference of Rome — Pompey at Jerusalem — The Judeean colony in Rome — Flaccus in Asia Minor — Cicero's oration against the Judaeans — Weakening of the power of the Synhedrion — Shemaya and Abtalion— Violent death of Aristobulus and his son Alexander — Julius 1 V CONTENTS. Caesar and the Judx-ans— Antipater's sons Phasael and Herod — Herod before the Synhedrion — Operations of Cassius in Judaea — MaHch — Antigonus as King -Herod escapes to Rome page 57 69 — 40 B. c. E. CHAPTER IV. ANTIGONUS AND HEROD. Weakness of Antigonus and Herod's Strength of Character — Contest for the Throne — Herod becomes King — Proscriptions and Confiscations — Herod's Pohcy — Abohtion of the Heredi- tary Tenure of the High Priesthood — Death of the High Priest Aristobulus — War with the Arabians — The Earth- quake— Death of the last of the Hasmonaeans— Hillel be- comes the Head of the Synhedrion— His System of Tradition — Menahem the Essene — Shammai and his School — Ma- riamne — Herod's Magnificence and Passion for Building — Herod rebuilds the Temple — Herod executes his Sons Alex- ander and Aristobulus— Antipater and his Intrigues — The Pharisees under Herod — The Destruction of the Roman Eagle — Execution of Antipater and Death of Herod. page 84 40 — 3 B. C. E. CHAPTER V. THE HERODIANS. The Family of Herod — Partition of the Kingdom of Judaea — Revolt against Archelaus — Sabinus and Varus — The Adven- turer-Chief Judas the Galilaean — Confirmation of Herod's Will — Archelaus as Ruler— His brief Reign and his Banish- ment— Judaea becomes a Roman Province — The Revolt against the Census — The Schools of Hillel and Shammai — Judas Founder of the Party of Zealots — Onerous Taxation — Fresh Hostility of the Samaritans — Expulsion of the Judaeans irom Rome by Tiberias — Pontius Pilate . . . page w"^ 3 B. C. E.— 37 C. E. CHAPTER VI. MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS AND ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. The Messianic Hope — Various Conceptions of the Expected Messiah— The Essene Idea of the Kingdom of Heaven — John tlie Baptist, his Work and Imprisonment— Jesus of Nazareth continues John's Labors — Story of his Birth — His Success — His Relations to Judaism and the Sects — His I CONTENTS. V Miraculous Healing of the Sick and Exorcism of Demons — His Secret Appearance as the Messiah — His Journey to Judaea — Accusations against him, and his Condemnation — The First Christian Community and its Chiefs — The Ebion- ites — Removal of Pilate from Judaea — Vitellius, Governor of Syria, favors the J udseans page i\i 28 — 37 c. E. CHAPTER Vn. AGRIPPA I. HEROD II. Character of Agrippa — Envy of the Alexandrian Greeks towards the Judaeans — Anti-Judaean Literature — Apion — Measures against the Judaeans in Alexandria — Flaccus — Judaean Embassy to Rome — Philo — Caligula's Decision against the Judaean Embassy — Caligula orders his Statue to be placed in the Temple — The Death of Caligula relieves the Judaeans — Agrippa's Advance under Claudius — His Reign — Gamaliel the Elder and his Administration — Death of Agrippa — Herod H — The False Messiah, Theudas — Death of Herod H Page 174 37—49 C. E. CHAPTER Vni. SPREAD OF THE JUDAEAN RACE, AND OF JUDAISM. Distribution of the Judaeans in the Roman Empire and in Parthia — Relations of the various Judaean Colonies to the Synhedrion— Judaean Bandits in Naarda — Heathen Attacks upon Judaism — Counter Attacks upon Heathenism by Judaean Writers — The Judaean Sibyls — The Anti-heathen Literature — The Book of Wisdom — The Allegorists — Philo's Aims and Philosophical System — Proselytes — The Royal House of Adiabene — The Proselyte Queen Helen — The Apostle Paul — His Character — Change in his Attitude towards the Pharisees — His Activity as a Conversionist — His Treatment of the Law of Moses — The Doctrines of Peter — ^Judaic-Christians and Heathen Christians . page 200 40 — 49 c. E. CHAPTER IX. AGRIPPA II. AND OUTBREAK OF THE WAR. Position of Affairs in Judaea — Roman Oppression — Character of Agrippa H — The last High Priest— The Zealots and the Sicarii — Eleazar ben Dinai — Quarrel with the Samaritans — Violence in Caesarea — The Procurators — Florus — Insurrec- VI CONTENTS. tion in CcTsarca — Bloodshed in Jerusalem — The Peace and War Parties — The Leader of the Zealots, Eleazar ben Ananias — Menahem, chief of the Zealots — Massacres of Heathens and Judaeans — Defeat of the Romans — The Syn- hedrion and its President, Simon ben Gamaliel — Position of the Synhedrion P^g^ 233 49 — 66 c. E. CHAPTER X. THE WAR IN GALILEE. Description of Galilee — Its Population and Importance — The Rising in Galilee — ^John of Gischala — Flavins Josephus, his Education and Character — His Conduct as Governor of Galilee — Commencement of the War — Overthrow of Gabara — Siege and Capture of Jotapata — Surrender of Josephus to the Romans — Cruelty of Vespasian — Siege and Capture of Gamala and Mount Tabor — Surrender of Gischala — Escape of John of Gischala to Jerusalem page 2"] 2 66 — 67 c. E. CHAPTER XI. DESTRUCTION OF THE JUDiEAN STATE. Galilsean Fugitives in Jerusalem — Condition of the Capital — Internal Contests — The Idumaeans — Eleazar ben Simon, John of Gischala, and Simon Bar-Giora — Progress of the War — Affairs in Rome — Vespasian created Emperor — Siege of Jerusalem by Titus — Heroic Defense — Famine — Fall of the Fortress Antonia — Burning of the Temple — Destruction of the City — Number of the Slain po^ge 291 67 — 70 c. E. CHAPTER XII. THE AFTER-THROES OF THE WAR. Sufferings of the Prisoners — The Arena — Cruelty of Titus — Enmity of the Antiochians — Triumph of the Emperor on the occasion of the Conquest of Judaea — End of Simon Bar- Giora and John of Gischala — Coins to Commemorate the Roman Triumph — Fall of the last Fortresses : Herodium, Masada, and Machaerus — Resistance of the Zealots in Alex- andria and Cyrene — End of the Temple of Onias — The Last of the Zealots — Death of Berenice and Agrippa — Flavius Josephus and his Writings P<^g^ Z^^ 7Ch— 73 c. E. CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER XIII. THE SYNHEDRION AT JABNE. Foundation of the School at Jabne — ^Jochanan ben Zakkai — The Last of the Herodians — ^Judaea and Rome — The Tana- ites — Gamahel II. appointed Patriarch — The Power of Excommunication — Deposition and Restoration of the Patri- arch— Steps towards Collecting the Mishna — Eliezer ben Hyrcanus — ^Joshua ben Chananya — Akiba and his System — Ishmael — Condition of the Synhedrion . . . page 321 70 — 117 c. E. CHAPTER XIV. INNER LIFE. Inner Life of the Jews — Sphere of Action of the Synhedrion and the Patriarch — The Order of Members and Moral Con- dition of the Common People — Relation of Christianity towards Judaism — Sects — ^Jewish Christians — Pagan Chris- tians— Ebionites — Nazarenes — The Gnostics — Regulations of the Synhedrion against Christianity — Proselytes at Rome — Aquilas and his translation of the Bible — Berenice and Titus — Domitian — ^Josephus and the Romans . . . page 360 CHAPTER XV. REVOLT OF THE JEWS AGAINST TRAJAN AND HIS SUCCESSORS. Trajan and Asia — Revolt of the Jews — Hadrian — The Jewish Sibylline Books — The Attempted Rebuilding of the Temple — The Ordinances of Usha — Bar-Cochba — Akiba's Part in the War — Bar-Cochba's Victories — Suppression of the Revolt — Siege and Fall of Bethar page 393 96 — 138 c. E. CHAPTER XVI. CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR OF BAR-COCHBA. Turnus Rufus persecutes the Jews — The Ten Martyrs — The Book of Tobit — Relations between Judaism and Christianity — The Return of the Schools to Palestine — The Synod at Usha — Meir — Simon ben Jochai — The Babylonian Synhe- drion— Antonius Pius and Aurelius Verus — The Revolt agamst Rome — The Patriarchate of Simon . . page 421 135—170 c. E. VIU CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. THE PATRIARCHATE OF JUDAH I. The Patriarch Judah I. — His Authority and Reputation — Completion of the Mishna — The Last Generation of Tanaites — Condition of the Jews under Marcus Aurehus, Commodus, Septimius Severus, and Antonius Caracalla — Character and contents of the Mishna — Death of Judah . . . page 450 175—219 c. E. CHAPTER XVIII. THE FIRST AMOR AIM. Judah II. — Friendhness of Alexander Severus towards the Jews — ^Joshua ben Levi — Hillel instructs Origen in Hebrew — The Hexapla — The Palestinean Amora'im — Chanina — Jochanan — Simon ben Lakish — ^Joshua, the Hero of Fable — Simlai, the Philosophical Agadist — Porphyry comments on the Book of Daniel P<^g^ 479 219 — 280 c. E. CHAPTER XIX. THE JEWS OF THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE. Increasing importance of the Jewish Community in Babylonia — The Prince of the Captivity — The Babylonian Amoraim — Abba Areka (Rab) and his royal friend Artaban — Samuel and King Shabur — Important Political Changes under the Neo-Persians — Anarchy in Rome — Zenobia and the Jews. page 503 219 — 279 C. E. CHAPTER XX. THE PATRIARCHATE OF GAMALIEL IV. AND JUDAH III. The Amoraim in Palestine — Ami and Assi — The Brothers Chiya and Simon Bar Abba in Tiberias — Abbahu in Casarea — The Emperor Diocletian — Complete Separation from the Samaritans — Character and Political Position of Abbahu — Huna in Babylonia — Chama's Generosity — Huna's Contem- poraries and Successors — ^Judah ben Ezekiel — Chasda of Cafri — MarSheshet — Nachman bar Jacob — Zcira . page ^2i^ 279 — 320 c. E. CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XXI. THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS RELATIONS TO JUDAISM. Hillel II. — His Calendar — Heads of Judsean Schools: Jonah, Jose, and Jeremiah — The Expansion of Christianity — Con stantine — l"he Decadence of the Jewish Schools in Babylonia — ^The Pumbeditha School — Development of Talmudical Dialectics— The Persian Queen Ifraand her son Shabur II. — The Emperor Julian — Favor shown towards the Jews — Proposed Rebuilding of the Temple — Roman Tolerance. P<^g€ 559 320—375 C. E. CHAPTER XXII. THE LAST AMORAiM, Decline of the Roman Empire — Ashi and the Redaction of the Talmud — ^Jezdijird II— The Jews under the Emperor Theodosius I and his successors — The extinction of the Patriarchate — Chrysostom and Ambrosius — Fanaticism of the Ciergy — Jerome and his Jewish Teachers — Mar Zutra — Fiftn and Sixth Generations of Amoraim — The Jews under Firuz — Jewish Colonies in India — Completion of the Baby- lonian Talmud — Its Spirit and Contents . . . page 604 375—500 C. E. HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CHAPTER I. JOHN HYRCANUS. The Crowning Point of the Period — War with Antiochus Sidetes— Siege of Jerusalem — Treaty of Peace — The Parthian War— Hyrcanus joins Antiochus — Successful campaigns of Hyrcanus against the Samaritans and Idumaeans — The Idumieans forced to embrace Judaism — Destruction of the Samaritan Temple at Gerizim and of the Capital, Samaria — Internal Affairs — The Parties : Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes, their Rise and Con- stitution— Their Doctrines and their Relations to one another — The Synhedrion— Strained Relations between Hyrcanus and the Pharisees — Death of Hyrcanus. 135—106 B. c. E. The reign of Hyrcanus is at once the pinnacle and the turning-point of this period. He not only car- ried on his father's work, but completed it. Under his predecessors Judaea was confined to a narrow space, and even within these bounds there were territories in the possession of foreign foes. Hyr- canus enlarged the boundaries to the north and to the south, and thus released the State from the exter- nal pressure that had been restricting its growth. His genius for war was aided by fortunate circum- stances in bringing about these happy results. If the reign of Hyrcanus corresponds in brilliancy to that of Solomon, it resembles it also in another respect: both reigns commenced and ended amid disturbance, sadness and gloom, while the middle of each reign was happy and prosperous. When Solo- mon first came to the throne he was opposed b)* 2 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. Adonijah, the pretender to the crown, whom he had to subdue ; and upon Hyrcanus a similar but more difficult task devolved — that of carrying on a strug- gle with several opponents. One of these oppo- nents was his brother-in-law, Ptolemy ben Habub, the murderer of his father, who had also sought after Hyrcanus's own life. It was only the support of the Syrian army, however, which could make Ptolemy dangerous, the inhabitants of Jerusalem having in- stantly declared themselves in favor of Hyrcanus as the successor of the murdered Simon. Still, both his safety and his duty called upon him to punish this unscrupulous enemy, and to avenge his father's death. Hyrcanus hastened, therefore, to attack him in his fortress before Antiochus could bring his troops to his relief. There is some uncertainty as to the progress of this siege and its result ; according to one account, evidently somewhat embellished, Hyr- canus could not put his whole strength against the fortress, because his mother (by some it is said, to- gether with his brothers) had been placed on the walls by Ptolemy, and was there horribly tortured. Like a true Hasmonaean, the heroic woman is said to have encouraged her son to continue the siege, without heeding her sufferings, and to persevere in his efforts until the murderer of her family should receive the chastisement due to his crimes. Hyrcanus's heart was torn by conflicting feelings ; revenge towards his reckless foe urged him on, whilst tender pity for his mother held him back. The fact is, however, that Hyrcanus withdrew without accomplishing his purpose. It may have been the Sabbatical year which prevented him from proceeding with the siege, or, as is much more likely, his operations may have been interrupted by the approach of the Syrian king, who was advancing with his army to glean some advantage for himself from the troubles and the confusion in Judaea. After the withdrawal of Hyr- canus's troops, it is said that his mother and brothers CH. I. ANTIOCHUS SIDETES. 3 were put to death by Ptolemy, who fled to Philadel- phia, the former Ammonite capital (Rabbath Am- mon), where he was favorably received by the governor, Zeno Cotylas. The name of Ptolemy is no more mentioned, and he disappears altogether from the page of history. A far greater danger now threatened Hyrcanus from Antiochus Sidetes, who was eager to avenge the recent defeat sustained by the Syrians (autumn 135). He marched forth with a large army, devas- tated the country round about, and approached the capital. Hyrcanus, doubtless feeling himself unable to cope with his enemy in the open field, shut him- self up behind the strong walls of Jerusalem. An- tiochus laid regular siege to the city and encircled it with elaborate preparations for its conquest. Seven camps were stationed around the city ; on the north side, where the country is flat, a hundred three-storied towers were erected from which the walls could be stormed. A broad double trench was likewise made to prevent the sallies of the Judaeans, who contrived nevertheless to come forth, thus bravely impeding the work of the enemy, and obstructing the progress of the siege. The Syrian army suffered much from the want of water and from sickness, the natural consequence of that de- ficiency. The besieged were well supplied with water, but food became scarce, and Hyrcanus found himself compelled to commit an act of cruelty. In order to husband the failing provisions, the inhabi- tants who could not bear arms were sent out of the city. Perhaps the hope was entertained that the enemy would take pity on them. But to the de- fenseless, foes are seldom generous. They were not allowed to pass the lines of the besieging army, and were thus exposed to death from both sides. In the meantime the summer passed, and still no prospect of storming the walls offered itself to the Syrians, whilst the Judaeans, on account of the scar- 4 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. city of provisions and the approaching holidays, were anxious for a truce. Hyrcanus made the first overtures, and asked for a cessation of arms during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. Anti- ochus not only granted that request, but sent him presents of animals with gilded horns for sacrificial purposes, and golden vessels filled with incense. Negotiations for peace followed upon this truce. Antiochus was urged by his advisers to show the greatest severity in his demands upon the Judaeans. They reminded him of the policy of Antiochus Epi- phanes, who knew no other way of crushing out the hatred of mankind felt by the Judaeans than that of obliging them to renounce their peculiar laws. If Antiochus Sidetes had listened to these prejudiced counselors, who saw, according to the biased views of that time, nothing but cynical exclusiveness in the singular customs of the Judaeans, the cruel wars in which the people had fought for their faith would have been repeated. Happily for them, Antiochus had neither the harshness nor the strength to ven- ture upon so dangerous a game. Antiochus con- tented himself with destroying the battlements of Jerusalem (autumn 134). With that act the dark cloud which had menaced the independence of Judaea passed away. No great injury had been inflicted upon the State, and even the traces of disaster that had been left were soon obliterated. For Hyrcanus now sent an em- bassy to Rome consisting of three delegates: Simon, the son of Dositheus, Apollonius, the son of Alex- ander, and Diodorus, the son of Jason, to entreat the Senate to renew, with the Jewish commonwealth, the friendly treaties, which Rome lavishly accorded to the smallest nations. At the same time they were to complain that Antiochus Sidetes had taken possession of several places in Judaea, and among them the important fortresses of Joppa and Gazara. Rome always sided with the weak against the CH. I. DEATH OF ANTIOCMUS. 5 strong, not from a sense of justice but from self- interested calculation. She desired especially to humble the royal house of the Seleucidae, which had occasionally shown her a defiant, or at least a haughty mien. The Judsean ambassadors were consequently most favorably received, their re- quests listened to with attention, and a decree issued by which Antiochus was called upon to restore the fortresses he had taken, and to forbid his troops to march through Judaea ; nor was he to treat its inhabitants as his subjects (about 133). Antiochus appears to have acquiesced in this decision. He was, moreover, obliged to assume a friendly demeanor towards Hyrcanus ; for at that moment he was meditating an attack against Parthia, which had formerly belonged to, but had since separated itself from the kingdom of his ancestors. His brother, Demetrius Nicator, had likewise undertaken an expedition against the Parthians, but had sus- tained a defeat, and was kept in imprisonment for nearly ten years. Antiochus believed that he would be more fortunate than his brother. In addition to the army of 80,000 which he had assembled, he requested the aid of Judsean troops and of the forces of other surrounding nations, and Hyrcanus consented to join with his army in the expedition. The Syrian king treated his Judaean allies with the greatest regard. After a victory gained on the banks of the river Zab (Lycus), he ordered, accord- ing to the desire of Hyrcanus, that a two days' respite should take place, so that the Judaeans might celebrate their Sabbath and the festival of the Feast of Weeks which followed it (129). Fortune, however, had chano-ed sides since the ^,ime of Antiochus the Great, and no longer favored the Seleucidaean dynasty. Antiochus lost his life in this campaign, and his brother Demetrius, who had been set at liberty by the king of Parthia at the time of the invasion of Antiochus, to be opposed to him 6 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. as a rival monarch, now reigned in his brother's stead (from 128-125). Hated by the Syrians on account of his long imprisonment in Parthia, Deme- trius was opposed by a rival, Alexander Zabina, whom Ptolemy Physcon had set up against him. Demetrius was obliged to flee before Zabina, and could not even find a refuge in Accho, where his wife Cleopatra resided. Syria fell into a state of still greater confusion under his successors, when Zabina disputed the throne with the legitimate heir, Anti- ochus VIII, the latter finding likewise a competitor in his brother on the mother's side, Antiochus IX. The last pages of the history of Syria are stained with crimes caused by the deadly hatred of the various members of the Seleucidaean house against each other, and with the murders they committed. Soon after the death of her husband Demetrius, Cleopatra had one of her sons, Seleucus, killed, and mixed the poisoned cup for the other one, Antiochus Grypus, who forced her to drink it herself. Hyrcanus took advantage of this state of anarchy and weakness in Syria, which lasted several years, to enlarge the boundaries of Judaea, until his country attained its former limits. Soon after the death of Antiochus Sidetes, the last traces of vassalage to which the siege of Jerusalem had reduced Judaea were completely wiped out, and even the bonds of alliance were canceled, whilst Alexander Zabina was grateful to be acknowledged by Hyrcanus as king of Syria. It was at this period (124) that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, particularly those included in the great council, made an appeal to the Egyptian community and to the priest, Judas Aristo- bulus, teacher to the king, and of priestly lineage, to allow the anniversaries of the consecration of the Temple and of the victory over the sinners to be numbered among the memorial holidays of the nation. To strengthen their request they referred to the unexpected help which God had given His CH. I. ENEMIES OF HYRCANUS. 7 people In the evil days of Antiochiis, enabling them to restore the sanctuary to its former purity. This appeal from Judcea was at the same time a hint to the Alexandrian community to acknowledge the new conditions that had arisen. John Hyrcanus, who until then had acted only in self-defense, was now, after the fall of Alexander Zabina (123), ready to strike energetically at Syria. Judaea at that time was encompassed on three sides by foreign tribes : on the south by the Idumaeans, on the north by the hated Samaritans, and beyond the Jordan by the Greeks, who had never been friendly to the Judseans. Hyrcanus therefore consid- ered it his mission to reconquer all those lands, and either to expel their inhabitants or to incorporate them with the Judaeans ; for so long as foreign and hostile tribes existed in the very heart of the coun- try, its political independence and religious stability would be in constant danger. Not only were these hostile peoples ever ready to join surrounding nations, and assist them in their greed for conquest, but they also often interfered with the religious worship of the Judaeans, thus frequently giving rise to acts of violence and bloodshed. Hyrcanus was consequently impelled by religious as well as by political motives to tear up these hotbeds of constant disturbance and hostility. To accomplish so great a task Hyrcanus required all the strength he could muster, and, in order not to tax too heavily the military resources of the nation, he employed mercenaries, whom, it is said, he paid out of the treasures he had found in David's sepulcher. The first place he attacked was Medaba, in the Jordan district. That city was taken after a six months' siege. Then the army moved on towards Samega, which, situated on the southern end of the Sea of Tiberias, must have been a place of great importance to the Judaeans. Next in turn came the towns of Samaria ; its capital, Shechem, as 8 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. well as the temple erected on Mount Gerizim, which had always been a thorn in the side of the Judaeans, were destroyed (21 Kislev, about 120). The anni- versary of the destruction of this temple (Yom har Gerizim) was to be kept with great rejoicing, as the commemoration of a peculiarly happy event, and no fasting or mourning was ever to mar the brightness of the festival. From this time forth the glory of the Samaritans waned ; for, although centuries to come still found them a peculiar people, and, at the present day even, they continue to exist and to offer sacrifice on Mount Gerizim, still, from the want of a central rallying point, they gradually decreased in numbers and prosperity. After his victory over the Samaritans, Hyrcanus marched against the Idumaeans. This people, although fallen very low during the many vicissi- tudes of fortune attending the constant changes of the Macedonian and Asiatic dynasties, and forced by the Nabathaeans to leave their dwellings, had alone, among all the tribes related by blood to the Judseans, been able to maintain themselves, and had preserved their ancient bitter animosity against them undiminished. Hyrcanus laid siege to their two fortresses, Adora and Marissa, and after having demolished them, gave the Idumseans the choice between acceptance of Judaism and exile. They chose the former alternative, and became, out- wardly, followers of that faith. The temples of the Idumaean idols were, of course, destroyed, but the priests secretly adhered to their worship. Thus, after more than a thousand years of enmity, Jacob and Esau were again united — the elder serving the younger brother. For the first time Judaism, in the person of its head, John Hyrcanus, practised intolerance against other faiths, but it soon found out with deep pain how highly injurious it is to allow religious zeal for the preservation of the faith to degenerate into the desire to effect violent conversion of others. CH. I. CONVERSION OF THE IDUM^ANS. 9 The enforced union of the sons of Edom widi the sons of Jacob was fraug'ht only with disaster to the latter. It was through the Idumseans and the Romans that the Hasmonaean dynasty was over- thrown and the Judaean state destroyed. The first result of the conquest of the Idumaeans and of their adoption of Judaism was a new contest with the city of Samaria, now chiefly inhabited by Macedonians and Syrians. A colony of Idumaeans had been transplanted from Marissa to the vicinity of Samaria. They were attacked and ill-treated by their neighbors, who were urged on to their acts of aggression by the Syrian kings, Grypus and Cyzi- cenus. The latter, who resembled Antiochus Epi- phanes in his folly and extravagance, manifested in particular a fierce hatred against Hyrcanus. His generals invaded Judaea, took several fortresses near the sea-coast, and placed a garrison in Joppa. Hyrcanus thereupon complained to the Roman Senate, which had guaranteed to Judaea the posses- sion of this seaport, and sent five ambassadors to plead the justice of his cause at Rome. Among these was Apollonius, the son of Alexander, who had appeared before the Senate in a former embassy. Rome replied in fair words to the petition of Hyr- canus, and promulgated a decree forbidding Anti- ochus Cyzicenus to molest the Judaeans, who were the allies of Rome, and commanding him to restore all the fortresses, seaports and territories which he had seized. It was further ordered that the Judaeans should be allowed to ship their goods duty free from their ports, a favor not granted to any other allied nation or king, excepting the king of Egypt, who was regarded as the peculiar friend of Rome, and finally that the Syrian garrison should evacuate Joppa. Whether the sentence pronounced by Rome had any great effect upon Antiochus Cyzicenus or not, the fact that it was not adverse to Hyrcanus was so far a boon that it strengthened his cause. It lO HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. appears to have restrained Cyziceniis within certain bounds. When, however, Hyrcanus, bent upon punishing- Samaria for its enmity to the people of Marissa, besieged that city, causing famine within its walls by closely surrounding it with trenches and ramparts, and thus cutting off every possibility of exit, Cyzice- nus came to its assistance. In an engagement with Aristobulus, the eldest son of Hyrcanus, who was conducting the siege conjointly with his younger brother Antigonus, Cyzicenus was defeated and forced to flee to Bethshean (Scythopolis). Too weak to confront the Judaeans alone, he called to his help the co-regent of Eg^'pt, Ptolemy VIII (Lathurus), who, inspired by the hatred entertained by the Eg}'ptians against the Judaeans, readily complied with that request. His mother Cleopatra, with whom the people had obliged him to share the gov- ernment, was secretly in league against him, befriend- ing, like her parents, the cause of Judaea. Two sons of Onias IV, Helkias and Ananias, sided with her. It was doubtless on that account that her son took an aversion to the Judaeans, and gladly came forth at the call of Cyzicenus to compel Hyrcanus to with- draw from the siege of Samaria. Despite the wishes of his mother, Lathurus sent an army of six thousand men to support Cyzicenus against Judaea. Too weak to venture on meeting the Judaean troops in the open field, the operations w^ere confined to lay- ing waste the country around, in the hope of thus impeding the work of the besiegers. The Judaean princes, however, instead of being forced to abandon the siege, contrived by various manoeuvres to compel the king of Syria to leave the scene of action and to withdraw to Tripolis. During one of the battles in which Cyzicenus was beaten, it is said that a voice from the Holy of Holies was heard announcing to Hyrcanus, at the very moment in which it took place, the victory achieved by his sons. He is said to have CH. I. DESTRUCTION OF SAMARIA. I I heard the following words pronounced in Aramaic : "The young princes have defeated Antiochus." The two generals, Callimandrus and Epicrates, whom Lathurus had left behind to continue the hostilities, were not more fortunate than himself, for the first lost his life in some engagement, the second suc- cumbed to bribery, and delivered into the hands of the Judaean princes the town of Bethshean, as well as other places in the plain of Jezreel, as far as Mount Carmel, which had been held by the Greeks or the Syrians. The heathen inhabitants were instantly expelled from the newly conquered cities, and the anniversaries of the recovery of Bethshean and of the Plain (Bekaata), 15-16 Sivan (June, 109), were added henceforth to the days of victory. Samaria, no longer able to rely upon foreign help, was obliged to capitulate, and after a year's siege was given up to the conqueror. Actuated either by revenge or prudence, Hyrcanus caused Samaria to be utterly destroyed, and ditches and canals to be dug through the place, so that not a trace should remain of the once flourishing city. The day of its surrender was added to the number of days of thanksgiving (25th Marcheshvan, November, 109). Thus Hyrcanus had carried out the comprehen- sive plans of the Hasmonaeans and crowned them with success. The independence of Judaea was assured, and the country raised to the level of the neighboring states. The enemies who had menaced it from every side, Syrians, Idumaeans, Samaritans, were nearly all conquered, and the land was deliv- ered from the bonds which had hitherto prevented its development. The glorious era of David and Solomon seemed to have returned, foreign tribes were obliged to do homage to the ruler of Judaea, the old hatred between the latter and Idumaea was blotted out, and Jacob and Esau again became twin brothers. Moabitis, the daughter of Arnon, again sent pres- ents to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. 12 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. The banks of the Jordan, the sea-coast, the caravan tracks that passed from Egypt through Syria, were all under the dominion of Judaea. She saw also the humiliation of her enemy, Ptolemy Lathurus. The latter was living in constant discord with his mother, the co-regent, who at last aroused the anger of the people against him to such a degree that he was obliged to flee from Alexandria (io8). He took refuge in the island of Cyprus, whither Cleopatra despatched an army in pursuit of him. But the troops sent to destroy him went over to his side. The Judaean soldiers who came from the province of Onion, commanded by the generals Helkias and Ananias, the sons of Onias, alone remained faithful to the Queen, and vigorously attacked Ptolemy to force him to leave the island. In Alexandria as in Judaea, at that time, the Judaeans played a leading role, and worked together in a common cause for mutual advantage. They fought against common foes, against Lathurus and his ally, Antiochus Cyzicenus. After all he had achieved for his country, it was only natural that Hyrcanus should cause Judaean coins to be struck, and should inscribe them in old Hebrew characters, but he abandoned the modest example of his father and allowed his own name to appear on them, "Jochanan, High Priest." Upon some of the coins we find, next his name, the inscription "and the Commonwealth of the Judaeans" (Cheber ha-Jehudim), as though he felt it necessary to indi- cate that it was in the name of the people that he had exercised the right of coinage. Upon other coins, however, we find the following words inscribed : "Jochanan, High Priest, and head of the Common- wealth of the Judaeans" (Rosch Cheber ha-Jehudim). Instead of the lily which was graven on his father's coins, he chose an emblem similar to that of the Macedonian conquerors — the horn of plenty. To- wards the end of his reign Hyrcanus assumed more en. I. RESULTS OF THE WAR. I 3 the character of a worldly potentate, and became more and more ambitious. His constant aim was to enlarge his country and to increase his own power. Hyrcanus appears to have cast a wistful eye upon the widely-extended territory which commanded the route to Damascus. The conquest of Ituraea, a tract of country lying to the east of Mount Hermon, which his successors completed, appears to have been planned by him. But a formidable disturbance in the land, which he was unable to suppress, speedily followed by his own death, prevented him from carrying out this undertaking. And this disturb- ance, apparently insignificant in its beginning, took so unfortunate a turn that the great Hasmonsean edifice, built up with so much labor and care, was completely destroyed. For the second time the Judaean State, having reached its highest pinnacle of prosperity, ascertained that it was not to main- tain itself in external greatness. The high tide of political development, which swept over Judaea whilst that country was under the do- minion of John Hyrcanus and his predecessors, could not fail to permeate the life of the people, and in particular to stimulate all their spiritual powers. With only short interruptions they had, during half a century, been continually engaged in a warfare in which they were alternately victorious and defeated, and in which, being brought into contact with various nations, now as friends, now as foes, they attained a greater maturity, and their former simple exist- ence rose to a more complex and a higher life. The hard struggles by which they had achieved inde- pendence caused them to examine more curiously into their own condition, and to hold fast to their national traits; but it led them also to adopt those foreign views and practices which appeared to blend harmoniously with their own. If the pious Judseans had formerly opposed with all their might every- thing that bore the Hellenic impress, many of them 14 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. were now convinced that amonq- the customs of Greece there mii^ht occasionally be something which they could adopt without prejudice or injury to their own faith. The Hasmona^ans had not only learnt from their neighbors the arts of war, how to fashion arms and construct fortresses, but also the peaceful arts of coining money with artistic ornamentation, and the rules of Greek architecture. A magnifi- cent palace, evidently built in the Grecian style, arose in Jerusalem. In front of the Hasmonsean Palace, near the valley-like hollow which divided the higher town from the Temple, there was a wide covered colonnade, called the " Xystum," where the people assembled. A bridge led across from the Xystum to the west gate of the furthest court of the Temple. There was likewise a building erected in the higher town, devoted to judicial meetings, constructed according to Grecian art ; with it was combined a Record Office, where important archives were kept. John Hyrcanus also erected, in the Grecian style, a family mausoleum in Modin, the birthplace of the Hasmonaeans. It consisted of a lofty building of white polished marble. Around it was a colonnade, and on the columns were beautiful carvings of vari- ous weapons and figureheads of ships. Seven pyra- mids crowned the edifice, in memory of the progen- itors of the Hasmonseans and their five heroic sons. The Hasmonsean mausoleum was of so great a height that it was visible from the sea. The tendency of the Judseans of that period, how- ever, was more especially directed to the mainte- nance and development of all that belonged peculi- arly to themselves than to the acquiring of the arts of foreign civilization. The Hebrew language, which, since the close contact of the people with Asiatic nations, had been almost superseded by the Ara- maic, appeared now to be celebrating to a certain extent its renaissance ; it was rejuvenated and be- came, for the second time, though in an altered form, CH. I. THE NEW HEBREW LANGUAGE. 1 5 the language of the people. It was rendered precious to them through the Holy Scriptural records which they had preserved from destruction, and which had ever been the source of their zeal and enthusiasm. Their coins were, as mentioned before, stamped in Hebrew, public records were written in Hebrew, and the songs of the people were sung in the same lan- guage. Though some prevalent Aramaic names were still retained, and Grecian numbers were adopted, the Hebrew language showed its strong vitality by enriching its vocabulary with new forms of words, and stamping the foreign elements it admitted with its own mark. The form that Hebrew assumed from this time forth is called the " New Hebrew." It was distinguished from the old Hebrew by greater clearness and facility, even though it lacked the depth and poetical fervor of the latter. At the same time Greek was understood by all the leaders and statesmen of the community. It was the language made use of in their intercourse with the Syrian kings, and was likewise spoken by their ambassadors to the Roman Senate. Alongf with Jewish names, Greek names appeared now more frequently than before. The character of the Ht- erature was also marked by the change which took place in the spirit of the people at this period of its revival. The sweet note of song was mute ; not a trace of poetical creation has come down to us from this and the next epoch. The nation called no longer for the fiery inspiration which flows through the lyric songs of the Psalms, and it could not furnish matter for mournful elegies. What it required to promote religious sentiment and fervor was already provided by the poetry of the Temple, and in the rich stores of the Scriptures the people found knowledge and instruction. Sober history now took the place of triumphant hymns, and related facts and deeds for the use of posterity. History was the only branch of literature which was cultivated, and the recent past l6 ITTSTORV OF THE JEWS. CH. I. and the immediate present furnished the historian's pen with ample subjects. That Hebrew was used in historical writings is shown by the fragments which have come down to us. The so-called first book of the Maccabees, which was written in He- brew, (but is now extant only in a Greek translation) is a proof of the inherent power of rejuvenescence belonging to the language. The change in the current of life, caused by polit- cal events, showed itself even more in the sphere of religion than in the literature and habits of the people in general. The victory over the Syrians, the expulsion of the Hellenists, the subjection of the Idumaeans, the humiliation of the Samaritans, culmi- nating in the destruction of the Temple of Gerizim, were so many triumphs of Judaism over its enemies, and were sanctioned as such by the champions of the religious party. In order to stamp them indelibly on the memory of future generations, their anniver- saries were to be kept like the days of the conse- cration of the Temple. Religion was still the great underlying impulse in all movements, and showed its strength even in the abuse to which it gave rise when it forced Judaism upon the heathens. In the meantime the religious consciousness of the people shone with a clearer light in consequence of the wider field upon which it had entered ; the wider view which had been gained into the various relations of life, the advance out of the narrow circle of tradition and inherited customs, produced schism and separ- ation amongst the Judaeans themselves. The strict religious party of Assidaeans withdrew from the scene of passing events, and, in order to avoid mixing in pubHc life, they sought a secluded retreat where they could give themselves up to undisturbed meditation. In this solitude they formed themselves into a distinct order, with strangle customs and new views, and received the name of Essenes. Their example, however, of giving up all active share in CH. I. THE SECTS. 1 7 the public weal was not followed by all the strictly devout Judseans, the majority of whom, on the con- trary, whilst firmly adhering to the precepts of their faith, considered it a religious duty to further the independence of their country. Thus there arose a division among the pious, and a national party separated itself from the Assidaeans or Essenes, which did not avoid public life, but, according to its strength and ability, took an active part in public affairs. The members of this numerous sect began at this time to bear the name of Pharisees (Perushim). But this sect, the very center, as it were, of the nation, having above all things at heart the preservation of Judaism in the exact form in which it had been handed down, insisted upon all political undertakings, all public transactions, every national act being tried by the standard of religion. To these demands, however, those who stood at the head of military or diplomatic affairs, and who saw how difficult it was always to deal with political matters according to the strict claims of their faith, would not or could not reconcile themselves. Thus a third party was formed — that of the Sadducees (Zadukim) — the members of which, without forsaking the religion, yet made the interests of the nation their chief care and object. Of these sects — the Assidsean-Essenes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees — only the last two e:jferted a powerful influence upon the course of events. At what precise period oppo- sition began to show itself among these several parties cannot be determined, as indeed the birth of new spiritual tendencies must ever remain shrouded from view. According to one account, the adverse parties first appeared at the time of Jonathan. The Pharisees (Perushim) can only be called a party figuratively and by way of distinction from the other two, for the mass of the nation was inclined to Phariseeism, and it was only in the national leaders that its peculiarities became marked. The Pharisees l8 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. received their name from the fact of their explaining the Scriptures in a pecuHar manner, and of deriving new laws from this new interpretation. As ex- pounders of the law the Pharisees formed the learned body of the nation. Their opinions were framed, their actions governed by one cardinal principle — the necessity of preserving Judaism. The individual and the State were to be ruled alike by the laws and customs of their fathers. Every deviation from this principle appeared to the Phari- sees as treason to all that was most precious and holy. To their opponents, the Sadducees, who argued that, unless other measures were used for political purposes, weighty national interests would be often wrecked by religious scruples, the Pharisees replied that the fate of the State, like that of the individual, depended not upon man but upon God. It was not human strength, nor human wisdom, nor the warrior's prowess that could determine the weal or the woe of the Judcean people, but Divine Provi- dence alone. Everything happened according to the eternal decrees of the Divine will, Man was responsible only for his moral conduct and the indi- vidual path he trod. The results of all human endeavors lay outside the range of human calcula- tion. From this, the Pharisees' view of life, the rival opinion of the Sadducees diverged ; whilst the Essenes, on the contrary, exaggerated it. Another view of the Pharisees was probably directed against the following objection urged by the Saddu- cees : If the fate of the individual or of the State did not depend upon the actions of the one or the policy of the other, there would be an end to Divine justice ; misfortune might then assail the righteous man, whilst the sun of happiness smiled upon the sinner. This reproach the Pharisees set aside by the doctrine, borrowed from another source, which taught that Divine justice would manifest itself not during life but after death. God will rouse the CH. I. THE TRADITIONAL CUSTOMS. IQ dead out of the sleep of the grave ; He will reward the righteous according to their works, and punish the wicked for their evil deeds. " Those will rise up to everlasting life, and these to everlasting shame." These views, however, precisely because they concerned only the inner convictions of men, did not mark the opposition between the parties so clearly as did the third dogma of the Pharisees, establishing the importance and all-embracing influ- ence of religious injunctions. In a nation whose breath of life was religion, many customs whose origin was lost in the dim twilight of the past had taken their place by the side of the written Law. If these customs were not found in the books of the Law they were ascribed to the great teachers (the Sopherim and the great assembly — Keneseth ha- gedolah), which, at the time of the return of the Captivity, had given form and new vigor to the religious sentiment, and at the head of which stands the illustrious expounder of Scripture, Ezra. Such religious customs were called the legacies of the teachers of the Law (Dibre Sopherim). All these unwritten customs, which lived in the heart of the nation and, as it were, grew with its growth, gained an extraordinary degree of importance from the dangers that Judaism had encountered and the vic- tories that it had achieved. The people had risked, in behalf of these very customs, their property and their life; and the martyrdom that many of the /aithful had undergone, and the antagonism they felt towards the renegade and frivolous Hellenists, had much increased the reverence and attachment with which these customs were regarded. The Temple, especially, which had been so ruthlessly defiled and afterwards been reconsecrated in so marvelous a manner, had become doubly precious to the whole people, who were determined to keep it free from the faintest breath of desecration. The Levitical 20 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. niles of purity, so far as they related to the Temple, were therefore observed with peculiar care and rigorous strictness. But this devotion to outward forms and ceremonies by no means excluded the religion of the heart. The Pharisees were acknowledged to be moral, chaste, temperate and benevolent. In their administration of justice they allowed mercy to prevail, and judged the accused not from the point of view of moral depravity but from that of human weakness. The following maxim was given by Joshua, the son of Perachia, one of the leaders of the sect, who, with his companion, Matthai of Arbela, lived in the time of Hyrcanus : " Take a teacher, win a friend, and judge every man from the presumption of inno- cence." His high moral temperament is indicated by this maxim. Their rigid adherence to the Law, and their lenient mildness and indulgence in other matters, gained for the Pharisees the deep venera- tion of the whole people. Of this sect were the pious priests, the teachers of the Law, and, above all, the magistrates, civil and religious, who at that time often combined both offices in one. The whole inner direction of the State and the Temple was in their hands. But the Pharisees owed their influence chiefly to their knowledge of the Law and to the application they made of it to the affairs of daily life, and they alone were called the interpreters and teachers of the Law. The degrading charge of hypocrisy, which was applied to them by their enemies in later times, they by no means merited, and, indeed, it is altogether preposterous to stigma- tize a whole class of men as dissemblers. They were rather, in their origin, the noblest guardians and representatives of Judaism and strict morality. Even their rivals, the Sadducees, could not but bear witness to the fact that " they denied themselves in this world, but would hardly receive a reward in a future world." CH. F. THE SADDUCEES. 21 This party of the Sadducees, so sharply opposed to the Pharisees, pursued a national-poHtical poHcy, It was composed of the Judsean aristocracy, the brave soldiers, the generals and the statesmen who had acquired wealth and authority at home, or who had returned from foreign embassies, all having gained, from closer intercourse with the outer world and other lands, freer thought and more worldly views. They formed the kernel of the Hasmonaean following, which in peace or war faithfully served their leaders. This sect doubtless included also some Hellenists, who, shrinking from the desertion of their faith, had returned to Judaism. The Saddu- cees probably derived their name from one of their leaders, Zadok. The national interests of the Judsean community were placed by the Sadducees above the Law. Burning patriotism was their rul- ing sentiment, and piety occupied but the second place in their hearts. As experienced men of the world, they felt that the independence of the State could not be upheld by the strictest observance of the laws of religion alone, nor by mere reliance upon Divine protection. They proceeded from this fundamental principle : man must exert his bodily strength and his spiritual powers ; he must not allow himself to be kept back by religious scruples from forming political alliances, or from taking part in wars, although by so doing he must inevitably infringe some of the injunctions of religion. Ac- cording to the Sadducaean views, it was for that purpose that God bestowed free will upon man so that he himself should work out his own well-being ; he is master of his fate, and human concerns are not at all swayed by Divine interposition. Reward and punishment are the natural consequences of our actions, and are therefore quite independent of resurrection. Without exactly denying the immor- tality of the soul, the Sadducees completely repudi- ated the idea of judgment after death. Oppressed 2 2 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. by the abundance of religious ordinances, they would not admit their general applicability nor the obliga- tion of keeping them. Pressed to give some stand- ard by which the really important decrees might be recognized, they laid down the following rule : that only the ordinances which appeared clearly ex- pressed in the Pentateuch were binding. Those which rested upon oral tradition, or had sprung up at various times, had a subordinate value and could not claim to be inviolable. Still they could not help occasionally recognizing the value of traditional interpretations. From a number of individual instances in which the Sadducees separated themselves from their rivals, one can mark the extent of their opposition to the latter. This appeared in their judiciary and penal laws and in the ritual they adopted, their worship in the Temple being in particular a subject of angry controversy. The Sadducees thought that the punishment ordered by the Pentateuch for the infliction of any bodily injury — "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" — should be literally interpreted and followed out, and obtained in consequence the reputation of being cruel administrators of justice ; whilst the Pharisees, appealing to traditional inter- pretations of the Scriptures, allowed mercy to pre- ponderate, and only required a pecuniary compen- sation from the offender. The Sadducees, on the other hand, were more lenient in their judgment of those false witnesses whose evidence might have occasioned a judicial murder, as they only inflicted punishment if the execution of the defendant had actually taken place. There were many points re- lating to the ritual which were warmly disputed by the two parties ; for instance, the date of the Feast of Weeks, which, according to the Sadducees, should always fall upon a Sunday, fifty days from the Sabbath after the Passover ; so also the pouring of water on the altar and the processions round it CH. I. THEIR DIFFERENCES WITH THE PHARISEES. 23 with willow branches during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, which the Pharisees advocated and the Sadducees rejected. The latter objected to the providing of the national offerings out of the treasury of the Temple, and insisted that the re- quired sacrifices should be left to the care and zeal of individuals. The manner in which the frank- incense should be kindled on the Day of Atone- ment, whether before or after the entrance of the high priest into the Holy of Holies, was also the cause of bitter strife. On these and other points of dispute the Sadducees invariably followed the exact letter of the Law, which resulted in their occasionally enforcing stricter rules than the Phari- sees, who have been so much abused for their rigid austerity. To one Levitical injunction, however, they paid but little attention — that of carefully avoiding the touch of any person or thing con- sidered unclean — and when their rivals purified the vessels of the Temple after they had been subject to any contact of the sort, they ridiculed them, saying, " It wants but little, and the Pharisees will try and cleanse the sun." In spite of the relief which these less stringent views gave the people, the Sadducees were not popular ; the feeling of the time was against laxity and in favor of strict religious observance. Be- sides, the Sadducees repelled their countrymen by their proud, haughty demeanor and their severe judicial sentences. They never gained the heart of the public, and it was only by force and authority that they were able to make their principles prevail. At that period the religious sentiment was so active that it gave birth to a religious order which far surpassed even the Pharisees in strictness and painful scrupulousness, and which became the basis of a movement that, mixing with new elements, produced a revolution in the history of the world. This order, which, from a small and apparently 24 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. insignificant origin, grew into a mighty power, destined to exert an irresistible influence, was that of the Essenes. The origin of this remarkable Essene order, which called forth the admiration even of the Greeks and the Romans, can be dated from the period of great religious enthusiasm excited by the tyranny and persecutions of the Syrians. The Essenes had never formed a political party, but, on the contrary, avoided the glare and tumult of public life. They did not place themselves in harsh antagonism to the Pharisees, but rather assumed the position of a higher grade of Pharisaism, to which party they originally belonged. They sprang without doubt from the Assidaeans, whom they resembled in their strict observance of the Sabbath. In their eyes the mere act of moving a vessel from one place to another would count as a desecration of that holy day. Even the calls of nature were not attended to on that day. They lived in all respects like the Nazarites, whose ideal it was to attain the highest sanctity of priestly consecration. It was their con- stant endeavor, not only to observe all the out- ward Levitical laws, but to attain through them to inward sanctity and consecration, to deaden their passions and to lead a holy life. The Levitical laws of cleanliness had, through custom and tradi- tion, developed to such a pitch that their austere observers must have been in constant danger of being defiled by contact with persons and objects ; and bathing and sacrifices were prescribed, through which they might recover a state of purity. A life-long Nazarite, or, what is the same thing, an Essene, was consequently obliged to avoid any intercourse with those who were less strict than himself, lest he should be contaminated by their proximity. Such considerations compelled him to frequent the society of, and to unite himself with, those only who shared his views. To keep their CH. I. THE ESSENES. 25 purity unspotted, the Essenes were thus induced to form themselves into a separate order, the first rule of which commanded implicit obedience to the laws of scrupulous cleanliness. It was only those whose views coincided with their own who could be allowed to cook food for them, and from such like- wise had to be procured their clothes, tools, imple- ments of trade and other things, in order to en- sure that, in their manufacture, the laws of cleanli- ness had been duly carried out. They were thus completely set apart by themselves ; and, in order to keep clear of any less strictly rigid observers, they thought it advisable to have their meals in common. Thus the Passover supper, which could be partaken of only in a circle of fellow-wor- shipers, must have been their ideal repast. It was almost impossible for Essenes to mix with women, as by the slightest contact with them they risked coming under the Levitical condemnation of uncleanliness, and, led on from one deduction to another, they began to avoid, if not to despise, the married state. How was it possible for the Essenes to maintain their excessive rigidity, especially in those warlike times ? Not only the pagan enemy, but even the Judaean warriors returning from the battle-field, defiled by the touch of a corpse, might bring all their precautions to naught. These fears may have induced the Essenes to seek seclusion in some retired place, where they could remain un- vexed by the sounds of war and undisturbed in their mode of life by any of its necessary incidents. They chose for their residence the desert to the west of the Dead Sea, and settled in the oasis of Engadi. The fruit of palm trees, which abound in this district, partly furnished their simple fare. All the Assidaeans did not join in the asceticism of the Essenes, nor did all the Essenes betake themselves to the desert. Some continued to live in their own family circles and did not renounce marriage ; but, 26 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. in consequence of their rigid scruples, they were met by many difficulties. Thus it was that celibacy and repasts held in common came to be considered as the general and most important characteristics of the Essenes. This mode of living led the Essenes to divest themselves of all their private possessions. To a member of their sect private property could be of no use ; each one placed his fortune in the common treasury, out of which the wants of the various members of the order were supplied. Hence the proverb, "A Chassid says, ' Mine and thine belong to thee (not to me). There were consequently neither rich nor poor among them, and this lack of all concern about material matters naturally led them to abstract their attention from everything mundane and to concentrate it upon religious matters. They thus avoided more and more all that pertained merely to the world, and followed with the enthusiasm of recluses a visionary, ideal tendency. The Essenes were distinguished also by other peculiarities. They were always clothed in white linen. Each of them carried a small shovel, with which, like the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert, they would cover their excrements with earth and thus hide impurity from sight. They also wore a sort of apron or handkerchief (knaphaim), with which to dry themselves after their frequent ablutions. In order to remove even unperceived impurities, they, like the priests before officiating in the Temple, bathed every morning in fresh spring water ; and from these daily baths they were called " Morning Bap- tists " [Table Shacharitli). The name Essene ap- pears likewise to have been derived from this pecu- liarity, as in the Chaldaic language it means a bather {Aschai, pronounced Assai). These outward forms were, however, only the steps that were to lead to inward purity and right- eousness— the symbols of their close communion CH. I MYSTICISM OF THE ESSENES. 2/ with God ; to which, according to the opinion of antiquity, man could only attain by fleeing from the world, and devoting himself to an ascetic mode of life. The utmost simplicity in food and dress, absti- nence, and the practice of morality and self-sacrifice were certainly virtues which adorned the Essenes, but were not peculiar to their sect, as they belonged equally to the Pharisees. The distinguishing traits of the Essenes, however, were their frequent prayers, their aversion to taking an oath, and their devoted pursuit of a kind of mystic doctrine. Before saying their prayers no profane word was permitted, and at the first dawn of day, after the Skema had been read, they assembled for quiet meditation, prepara- tory to what was considered their real prayer, which was always to be a spontaneous effusion of the heart. To the Essenes their repasts were a kind of divine service, the table on which their food was spread, an altar, and the fare which they partook of, a holy sacrifice, which they ate in deep and pious meditation. No language of a worldly nature passed their lips during their meals, and these were gener- ally partaken of in complete silence. This strange silence doubtless produced a great impression upon those who did not belong to the order ; the more so, because the real nature of this exclusive sect was not known to its contemporaries, and everything concerning it assumed a mysterious and awful aspect. It was not, perhaps, at first the object of the Essenes to become absorbed in mystic lore ; but their asceticism, their intensely quiet life, which gave them so much opportunity for meditation, their free- dom from family cares, and, lastly, their religious visionariness, made them seek for other truths in Judaism than appear to less subtle minds. The name of God was to them a subject of deep contem- plation, justified in some degree by the dread which existed among the Judaeans of pronouncing the 28 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. name of the Almighty, formed of the four letters J h w h. If the name of God be thus holy, surely something" mysterious must belong to the letters themselves. Thus reasoned the Essenes, whose seclusion from the world gave them abundant leisure to ponder over this sacred enigma. So holy was the name of God in their estimation that they refused to take any oath which called for its use, and their statements were attested by a simple " yes " or " no." In close connection with the mystery attaching to the name of God was that which they applied to the names of angels. The Essenes faithfully handed down in their theosophic system the names, as well as the importance and position of the various angels. When they endeavored to explain the meaning of Holy Writ by their fantastic and newly discovered ideas, what fresh phases must have presented them- selves to their distorted vision ! Every word, every expression must have revealed a hitherto unsus- pected meaning ; the most difficult questions as to the being of God, and His relations to the heavenly powers and the lower creatures, were explained. Through their indifference to all that concerned the State, as well as the affairs of daily life, they gradu- ally led Judaism (dependent as it was on the estab- lishment of national prosperit)) into the darkness and exaggerations of Mysticism. Their deep and mystic reverence for the Prophet and Lawgiver Moses carried them to the greatest excesses. His memory and name were endeared to all the Judseans within and beyond Palestine. They took oaths in the name of Moses, and bestowed that name on no other man. But the Essenes carried their devotion to such an extreme that he who spoke against the name of Moses was treated as one who blasphemed God. The final aim of the Essenes was, without doubt, the attainment to prophetic ecstasy so that they might become worthy of the Divine Spirit {Ruach CH. I. EVIL SPIRITS. 29 ha-KodesK). The Essenes believed that through an ascetic life they might re-awaken the long-silent echo of the Heavenly voice, and this end gained, prophecy would be renewed, men and youths would again behold Divine visions, once more see the uplifting of the veil which hides the future, and the great Messianic kingdom would be revealed. The kingdom of Heaven {^Malchuth Sliamaiiri) would commence, and all the pain and trouble of the times would, at one stroke, be at an end. The Essenes were considered not only holy men (on account of their peculiar mode of life and vision- ary views), but they were also admired as workers of miracles. People hung upon their words and hoped for the removal of impending evils through their means. Some of the Essenes bore the repu- tation of being able to reveal the future and inter- pret dreams ; they were reverenced yet more by the ignorant, on account of their miraculous cures of so-called " possessed " persons. The intercourse of the Judseans with the Persians had brought with it, together with a belief in the existence of angels, a superstitious belief in malicious demons {Skedim, Mazzkin). Imbeciles were thought to be possessed by evil demons, who could only be exorcised by a magic formula ; and all extraordinary illnesses were attributed to such demons, for which the advice of the v/onder-worker, and not that of the doctor, was sought. The Essenes occupied themselves with cures, exorcisms, etc., and sought their remedies in a book [Sefer Refuoth) which was attributed to King Solomon, whom the nation considered as the master of evil spirits. Their curative remedies consisted partly in softly-spoken incantations and verses \Lechis'hd), and partly in the use of certain roots and stones supposed to possess magic power. Thus the Essenes united the highest and the lowest aims, — the endeavor to lead a pious life and the most vulgar superstitions. Their exaggerated asceticism 30 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. and fear of contact with others of a different mode of life caused a morbidly unhealthy development among them. The more rationally-minded Pharisees paid them but little attention ; they made sport of the " foolish Chassid." Although sprung from a common root, the more the Pharisees and Essenes developed, the more widely they diverged. The one party saw in marriage a holy institution appointed for the good of mankind, and the other an obstacle to a thoroughly religious life. The Pharisees recognized man's free will in thought and action, and consequently deemed him responsible for his moral conduct. The Essenes, on the contrary, confined to the narrow circle of their self-same, daily-repeated duties, came to believe in a sort of divine fatalism, which not only governed the destiny of mankind but also ruled the acts of each individual. The Essenes avoided the Temple, the worship practised there being framed according to the doctrines of the Pharisees and unable to satisfy their ideals. They sent their offerings to the Temple, and thus fulfilled the duty of sacrificing without being themselves present at the ceremony. With them, patriotism became more and more sub- ordinate to the devotion they felt towards their own order, and thus by degrees they loosed themselves from the strong bands of nationality. There lay concealed in Essenism an element antagonistic to existing Judaism, unsuspected by friends or foes. The Essenes had no influence whatever upon political events. Their number was small, and even at the time of their greatest prosperity the order consisted only of about four thousand mem- bers. Consequent upon the life of celibacy which they adopted, the losses made by death in their ranks could not naturally be replaced. To avoid dwindling away entirely, they had recourse to the expedient of enrolling novices and making prose- lytes. The new member was admitted with great CH. I. INITIATION OF THE ESSENES. 3I solemnity, and presented with the white garment, the apron, and the shovel, the symbols of Essenism. The novice was not allowed, however, to enter im- mediately into the community, but was subjected by degrees to an ever stricter observ^ance of the laws of abstinence and purity. There were three probationary degrees to be passed through before a new member was received into complete brotherhood. At his admission the novice swore to follow the mode of life of the Essenes, to keep conscientiously and to deliver faithfully the secret teachings of their order. He who was found to be unworthy was expelled. The unfriendly relationship between the Pharisees and Sadducees did not exist in the time of Hyrcanus. He made use of both parties according to their capa- bilities— the Sadducees as soldiers or diplomatists, and the Pharisees as teachers of the Law, judges, and functionaries in civil affairs. The one honored Hyrcanus as the head of the State, the other as the pious high priest. In fact, Hyrcanus personally favored the Pharisees, but as prince he could not quarrel with the Sadducees, among whom he found his soldiers, his generals and his counselors. Their leader Jonathan was his devoted friend. Until old age crept on him, Hyrcanus managed to solve the difficult problem of keeping in a state of amity two parties that were always on the verge of quarreling. He understood how to prevent either party from gaining the upper hand and persecuting its rival. But (as too often happens in such difficult situations) a word, a breath can upset the best-arranged plans, bringing to naught the most skilful calculations, and the slowly, carefully built edifice falls and crumbles in a day. A heedless word of this kind turned the zealous follower of Pharisaism into its bitter opponent. In the last years of his life Hyrcanus went quite over to the Sadducees. The cause of this change, which brought such unspeakable misery to the Judsean natioii, was trivial 32 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. in comparison with its results ; but the antagonism of the two parties, which could only with the utmost difficulty be kept from breaking out into open dis- cord, gave it a terrible and far-reaching importance. Hyrcanus had just returned from a glorious victory over one of the many nations in the northeast of Persea (Kochalit?). Rejoicing in the happy result of his arms and in the flourishing state of his country, he ordered a feast to be held, to which he invited without distinction the leaders of the Sadducees and Pharisees. Around golden dishes laden with food were placed various plants that grew in the desert, to remind the guests of the hardships they had endured under the Syrian yoke, when the nobles of the land were obliged to hide themselves in the wilderness. Whilst the guests were feasting, Hyrcanus asked if the Pharisees could reproach him for any transgression of the Law? If so, he desired to be told in what he had failed. Was this apparent humility only a cunningly-devised plan to discover the real disposition of the Pharisees towards him? Had the Sadducees inspired him with suspicion against the Pharisees, and advised him to find some way of proving the sincerity of their attachment? In reply to the challenge thus thrown out, a certain Eleazer ben Poira arose and bluntly answered, " Hyrcanus should content him- self with the crown of royalty, and should place on a worthier head the high priest's diadem. During an attack on Modin by the Syrians his mother, before his birth, was taken prisoner, and it is not fitting for the son of a prisoner to be a priest — much less the High Priest ! " Although inwardly wounded by so outspoken an insult to his pride, Hyrcanus had sufficient self-possession to appear to agree with the bold speaker and ordered the matter to be examined. It was, however, proved to be an empty report ; in fact, without the slightest foundation. Hyrcanus's anger was doubly roused against the CH. I. IIVRCANUS AND THE PHARISEES. 33 Pharisees through the care taken by the Sadducees and his devoted friend Jonathan to persuade him that the former had invented the story purposely to lower him in the eyes of the people. Anxious to find out if the aspersion cast on his fitness for the high-priesthood was the act of the whole party or only the slander of an individual, he demanded that their leading men should punish the calumniator, and expected that the chastisement inflicted would be in proportion to his own exalted rank. But the Pharisees knew of no special penalty for the slanderer of royalty, and their judges only awarded him the lawful punishment of thirty-nine lashes. Jonathan, the leader of the Sadducees, failed not to use this circumstance as a means to rake up the fire in Hyrcanus's breast. He led him to see in this mild judgment of the court a deep-rooted aversion enter- tained by the Pharisees against him, thus estranging him completely from his former friends, and binding him heart and soul to the Sadducees. There is probably some exaggeration in the account of Hyr- canus's persecution of the adherents of the Pharisees, and of his setting aside all the decrees of the latter. There is, however, more truth in another report, from which we learn that Hyrcanus had deposed the Pharisees from the various high posts they had filled. The offices belonging to the Temple, to the courts of law and to the high council were given to the followers of the Sadducees. But this stroke of policy produced the saddest results. Naturally enough it awakened in the hearts of the Pharisees, and of the people who sided with them, a deep hatred against the house of the Hasmonseans, which bore civil war in its train and hastened the nation's decline. One act had been sufficient to cast a cloud over the brilliant days of the Hasmonseans. Hyrcanus lived but a short time after these events. He died in the thirty-first year of his reign, the sixtieth year of his age (io6), leaving five sons, 34 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. I. Aristobulus, Antigonus, Alexander, Absalom, and one other, whose name has not come down to us. Hyrcanus bore some resemblance to his prototype Solomon, inasmuch as that, after the death of both, dissensions broke out and the country became a prey to constant strife and discord. CHAPTER II. HYRCANUS'S SUCCESSORS, ARISTOBULUS I, ALEXANDER JANN/EUS, AND SALOME ALEXANDRA. Character of Aristobulus — Antigonus — Mythical Account of his Death — Alexander Jannasus : his Character and Enterprises — His Support of the Pharisees — Simon ben Shelach — Alexander's Breach with the Pharisees, and its Consequences — His last Wars and Death— Salome Alexandra's Relations to the Opposing Parties — The Synhedrion — Judah ben Tabbai and Simon ben Shetach — Institutions against the Sadducees — Party Hatred — Diogenes — Persecution of the Sadducees — Death of Alexandra. io6 — 69 B. C. E. John Hyrcanus had proclaimed his wife queen, and his eldest son, Judah, high priest. The latter is better known by his Greek name Aristobulus, for he, like his brothers and successors, bore a Greek as well as a Hebrew name. But it was soon evi- dent that the Greek custom of placing a female ruler at the head of the State was not looked upon with favor in Judaea. Thus Aristobulus was able to remove his mother from her official position without creating any disturbance, and he then united in his own person the two dignities of ruler and high priest. It is said that he was the first of the Has- monaeans to assume the royal title ; but this title did not add in any way to his power or his import- ance. His coins, indeed, which have since been discovered, bear only the following inscription, "The High Priest Judah, and the Commonwealth of the Judaeans," and they are engraved with the same emblem as those of his father, viz., a cornu- copia, although this symbol of plenty was hardly a truthful characteristic of the times. The seed of discord sown by Hyrcanus grew and spread alarmingly in the reigns of his descendants. 35 36 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. II. In vain did the successive rulers attempt to raise the importance of the royal dignity, in vain did they surround themselves with a body-guard of trusty hirelings and perform the most brilliant feats of valor, the breach between them and their sub- jects became irreparable, and no remedy proved effectual. The royal house and the people were no longer at one ; political life was separated from religious life, and the two were pursuing opposite paths. The king, Aristobulus, not only supplanted his mother upon the throne, but he also imprisoned her with three of his brothers. His brother Antigonus alone, of like temperament to himself and his com- panion-in-arms, whom he tenderly loved, was per- mitted to take part in the government. In spite of the meager and unsatisfactory accounts of his short reign, we may gather from them that he followed the example of his father's last years, in remaining closely connected with the Sadducees, and in keep- ing the Pharisees from all power and influence. Aristobulus had but few friends in his own family, and he does not appear to have been beloved by his subjects. The fact of his having had a decided preference for Hellenism accounts for his sur- name, which was honored by the Greeks and hated by the Judseans — " Friend of the Hellenes." This one characteristic gave such offense to the people that they were ready to ascribe to him the author- ship of any evil deed that might occur in the king- dom. Whilst the Greeks called him fair-minded and modest, the Judseans accused him of heartless- ness and cruelty. His mother expired during her imprisonment, possibly of old age; evil report whispered that her own son was guilty of having allowed her to die of starvation. His favorite brother, Antigonus, was foully murdered (probably through the intrigues of the party hostile to the Hasmonaeans) ; sharp-tongued calumny affirmed CH. II. ARISTOBULUS I. 37 that the king, jealous of him, was the author of the foul deed, and tradition has woven a web of tragic incidents round the sad fate of Antigonus. But of this later. Aristobulus had inherited not only his father's military ability, but also his plans of extending Judaea in a northeasterly direction. The Iturseans and the Trachonites, who often left their mild, pastoral pursuits for the rougher trade of war, occupied the district surrounding the gigantic Mount Hermon, and eastwards as far as the lovely plain of Damascus. Against these half-barbaric tribes Aristobulus undertook a campaign, probably continuing what his father had commenced. His brother Antigonus, in whose company he had won his first laurels when fighting against the Samaritans and the Syrians, was once more his companion-in- arms. The fortunes of war were favorable to Aris- tobulus, as they had been to his father ; he acquired new territory for Judsea, and, like his father, forced the Judaean religion upon the conquered people. Continued conquests in the same direction would have put the caravan roads leading from the land of the Euphrates to Egypt into the hands of the Judaeans ; which possession, combined with the war- like courage of the inhabitants and the defensive condition of the fortresses, might have permitted Judaea to attain an important position among the nations. But, as though it had been decreed by Provi- dence that Judaea should not gain influence in such a manner, Aristobulus was forced by severe illness to abandon his conquests and to return to Jerusa- lem. Antigonus, it is true, carried on the war successfully for some little time ; but after his return to the capital, for the celebration of the festivals in the approaching month of Tishri, neither he nor his royal brother was fated ever again to tread the arena of war. Antigonus fell, as was mentioned pre- viously, by the hand of an assassin, and Aristobulus 38 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH.II. died of a malignant disease, after a reign of one year (106-105). The deaths of the two brothers following in close succession gave evil-tongued calumny the opportu- nity of inventing the following fearful tragedy : It was said that the opponents of Antigonus seized the occasion of his triumphal return to excite the suffer- ing king's jealousy. Aristobulus, while still repos- ing confidence in his brother, sent for Antigonus, and intimated that he should appear unarmed. For greater protection he had his body-guard stationed in one of the passages, and gave orders that Anti- gonus was to be dispatched forthwith if he should enter armed. The queen, who hated Antigonus, made use of this order for the destruction of her brother-in-law, for she persuaded him to go fully equipped to the king's chamber, and in one of the dark passages of the tower of Straton the foul deed was executed. When the king heard that his com- mands had been carried out he was violently affected, and his grief caused a hemorrhage. His servant, in carrying away a vessel filled with the blood that he had lost, slipped upon the floor of the antechamber, still wet with the blood of the assassin- ated man, and, dropping the vessel, caused the blood of the two brothers to mingle. This accident was said to have had so overpowering an effect upon the king's mind that he instantly declared himself to be his brother's murderer, and the agony of remorse was the final cause of his death. Tradi- tion adds that an Essene seer of the name of Judah had not only predicted the violent death of Antigo- nus, but also that it would take place in the tower of Straton. The commencement of the reign of Aristobulus's successor is involved in legend. From this we gather that Alexander, whose Judaean name Jannai (Jannaeus) is the abbreviation of Jonathan, had not only been imprisoned by his brother, but had been CH II. ALEXANDER JANN^EUS. 39 SO hated by his father that he had been banished to GaHlee. This was the resuh of a dream, in which it had been revealed to John Hyrcanus that his third son would one day be king of jLidsea. The widow of Aristobulus is said to have released him from prison, and to have given him her hand with the crown. But in that case Alexander would have married a widow, which it was unlawful for him, as high priest, to do. It is more probable that Alexan- der ascended the throne, being the nearest heir to it, without the aid of the widow of Aristobulus. Nor is there any foundation for the story that Alexander commenced his reign by the murder of a brother with whom he had actually shared the sufferings of his captivity. Alexander appears to have begun by studying the people's wishes, for the Pharisees were once more allowed to appear at court. Simon ben Shetach, the brother of his wife, Queen Salome, the champion of the Pharisees, was constantly in the king's presence. Alexander Jannseus, who came to the throne at the age of twenty-three, was as warlike as the family from which he sprung, but he was wanting in the generalship and the judgment of his ancestors. He rushed madly into military undertakings, thus weak- ening the power of the people, and bringing the State more than once to the verge of destruction. The seven and twenty years of his reign were passed in foreign and civil wars, and were not calculated to increase the material prosperity of the nation. His good luck, however, was greater than his ability, for it enabled him to extricate himself from many a critical position into which he had brought himself, and also, upon the whole, to enlarge the territory of Judaea. Like his father, he employed mercenaries for his wars, whom he hired from Pisidia and Cilicia. He did not dare enroll Syrian troops, the hatred that existed between Judaeans and Syrians being too deeply ingrained to permit 40 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. II. the harmonious working of the two to be counted upon, Alexander's attention was principally directed to the seaports which had managed to free themselves from Syrian rule, owing to the rivalry that existed between the two half-brothers, Antiochus Grypus and Cyzicenus. He was particularly anxious to possess himself of the thickly-populated and impor- tant seaport town of Ptolemais, colonized by Judae- ans. Whilst his troops overran the district of Gaza, then under the dominion of Zoilus, a captain of mercenaries, he pressed the seaport town himself with a persistent siege. The inhabitants of Ptole- mais turned for help to the Egyptian prince Ptolemy Lathurus, who, at open warfare with his mother, had seized upon Cyprus. Lathurus, glad to have found an opportunity of acquiring greater power, and of being able at the same time to approach the caravan roads of Egypt, hastened to send thirty thousand men to the Judcxan coast. He chose a Sabbath day for victoriously driving the Judsean army, consisting of at least fifty thousand men, from Asochis, near Sepphoris, back to the Jordan. More than thirty thousand of Alexander's troops remained on the field of battle, many were taken prisoners, whilst the others fled. Lathurus, with part of his army, marched through Judaea, slaughtering the inhabi- tants, without sparing women or children. He wished not only to revenge himself upon Alexander, but also upon the Judaeans, for had they not been his enemies in Egypt ? Accho likewise surrendered, and Gaza voluntarily opened its gates to him. This crushing defeat would doubtless have brought Judcea into the most revolting slavery, had not Cleopatra attempted to snatch the fruit of her son's triumphs from him before he could turn them against herself. She sent a mighty army against Lathurus, under the command of two Judaean gen- erals, Helkias and Ananias, the two sons of Onias, CH. II. PTOLEMY LATHURUS. 4I to whom she was indebted for the integrity of her crown. Helkias died during the campaign, and his brother took his place in the council and in the field. The position of trust occupied by Ananias was of distinct advantage to his compatriots in Judaea. Cleopatra had been urged not to lose the favorable opportunity, when Judaea was unable to forego her help, of invading that country and of dethroning Alexander. But Ananias was indignant at this advice. He not only pointed out the disgrace of such faithlessness, but he made the queen under- stand the evil consequences that would follow upon such a step. Many Egyptian Judaeans, who were the upholders of her throne against the threatened attacks of her son, would make common cause with her enemies, were she to strike a blow at the inde- pendence of their country. His words even con- tained the menace that he would, in such case, not only withhold his political knowledge and his gen- eralship from her interests, but that he might pos- sibly devote them to the cause of her opponents. This language had its desired effect upon the queen ; she rejected the cunning advice of the enemies of the Jews, and made an offensive and defensive league with Alexander at Bethzur (98). Lathurus was obliged to leave Judaea and to retreat with his army to Cyprus. All the cities that had resisted the arms of the Judaean king were now visited by his wrath. But he was, above all things, determined upon retaking Gaza. This object was accomplished only after a year of desperate fighting, and was finally brought about by an act of treachery. All the cruelty inherent in Alexander was poured out upon the besieged inhabitants of Gaza. He executed some of the most distinguished amongst them, and the terror he inspired was so great that many of the men killed their own wives and children to prevent them from falling into Judaean slavery (96). 42 HISTORY OF TllK JKWS. CH. II. The nine years of Alexander's reij^n had been too prolific in dani^erous and perplexini^ situations to allow of his disturbing the internal harmony of his country. He appears to have been strictly neutral in the strife that was raging between the Pharisees and Sadducees. His wife Salome may have exer- cised her influence in urging him to maintain this neutral position, as she was a warm partisan of the once-hated Pharisees. Alexander appears to have made Simon ben She- tach the mediator between the two parties ; the Pharisees being still somewhat in the background, and the Sadducees holding posts of trust. Plver since John Hyrcanus's secession from Pharisaism, the Great Council had been composed of Sadducaean members, and as long as one party was thus openly preferred to the other, peace and reconciliation seemed impossible. The king may, therefore, have been inspired by the wish to bring about some kind of equality between the two parties by dividing offices and dignities between them. But the Phar- isees positively refused to act conjointly with their opponents and offered the most active resistance. Simon ben Shetach alone allowed himself to be chosen member of the Council, secretly determining to purge it by degrees of its Sadducaean element. Alexander's impartial conduct continued only so long as the critical position drew his attention away from home affairs. It changed visibly when he re- turned from his campaign, the conqueror of cities and provinces deeming himself the despotic master of his people. Either the newly acquired influence of the Pharisees threatened to be an obstacle in his path, or he may have wished to reward and attract the Sadducees upon whom he might rely for carry- ing on his campaigns, or he may have been influ- enced by his favorite, the Sadducee Diogenes ; at all events, Alexander appeared as the inveterate opponent of Pharisaic teaching, and made his views CH. II. ALEXANDER AND THE SADDUCEES. 43 public in a most insulting manner. Whilst officiating as high priest, during the Feast of Tabernacles, it was his duty, in accordance with an ancient custom, to pour the contents of a ewer of water upon the altar as an emblem of fruitfulness. But in order to show his contempt for a ceremony considered by the Pharisees as a religious one, Alexander poured the water at his feet. Nothing more was required to ignite the wrath of the congregation assembled in the outer court of the Temple. With reckless indignation they threw the branches and the fruit, which they carried in their hands in honor of the festival, at the heretical king, denouncing him as an unworthy high priest. Alexander would certainly have paid for this disgraceful action with his life had he not called in the help of the Pisidian and Cilician mercenaries, who had been ordered to be in waiting, and who fell upon the congregation, slaughtering 6000 within the precincts of the Temple (95). In order to avoid a repetition of such scenes, Alexander thenceforth prevented the worshipers from enter- ing the court of sacrifices, by building up a partition wall. But these events gave rise to an implacable hatred between the king and the Pharisees. Thus, after three generations, the descendants of the great Hasmonaeans had so far weakened the edifice raised at the expense of their ancestors' lives, that it ap- pears marvelous how it could have continued to resist such repeated attacks. The bitter rivalry of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel in the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam was repeated in the history of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But Alexander did not see the breach that his hand had childishly and ruthlessly made; absorbed in magnificent schemes of future conquest he ignored the fact that if the harmonious intercourse between the king and his subjects, the very life of the State, were to cease, greater possessions would but weaken and not strengthen the kingdom. He had set his 44 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. II. heart upon invading the trans-Jordanic land, still called Moabitis, and the southeastern provinces of the sea of Tiberias, called Galaditis or Gaulonitis. But his progress in this campaign was checked by the Nabathsean king Obeda, who lured him into a pathless country broken up by ravines, where Alex- ander's army found its destruction, and where the king himself escaped only with his life to Jerusalem (about 94). There the wrath of the Pharisees awaited him. They had excited the people to revolt, and six years of bloody uprisings against him were the consequence (94-89). Alexander succeeded in put- ting down one revolt after another by the aid of his mercenaries, but the horrible butcheries that took place on these occasions were a perpetual incentive to fresh uprisings. Alexander, worn out at length by these sanguinary proceedings, offered to make peace with the Pharisees. It was now, however, their turn to reject the proffered hand of peace, and to be guilty of an act of treachery towards their country which must remain as an indelible stain upon their party. Upon Alexander's question as to what conditions of peace they required, the Pharisaic leaders answered that the first condition was the death of the king. They had, in fact, secretly offered their aid to the Syrian monarch Eucaerus to humble Alexander. Summoned by their promises, Eucaerus advanced upon Judsea with 40,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry. Upon the news of this impending danger, Alexander marched out at the head of 20,000 infantry and 1000 cavalry. In the terrible encounter that ensued at Shechem, Judsean fought against Judsean, Greek against Greek, for each army remained true to its leader and could not be bribed into desertion. The battle, disastrous for both sides, was finally gained by Eucaerus, and Alexander was driven, through the loss of his mercenaries, to wander among the moun- tain-passes of Ephraim. There, his solitary position moved his people to pity, and six thousand of his CH. II. DIOGENES. 45 Pharisaic opponents left the Syrian camp and went over to their king, who was now able to force Eucaerus's retreat from Judsea. But the more relentless amongst the Pharisees still held out against Alexander, and after an unsuc- cessful battle in the open field, threw themselves for safety into the fortress of Bethome, which, however, they were obliged to surrender. Urged by his Sadducsean favorite Diogenes, and impelled by his own thirst for revenge, the king had eight hundred Pharisees crucified in one day. Tradition even relates that the wives and children of the victims were butchered before their eyes, and that Alexan- der, surrounded by his minions, feasted in the pres- ence of this scene of carnage. But this exaggeration of cruelty was not required to brand him with the name of "Thracian"; the crucifixion of eight hun- dred men was enough to stigmatize him as a heart- less butcher, and this action alone was to bring forth bitter fruits for the Sadducees who had witnessed it with malicious joy. During the civil wars that had lasted for six years, fifty thousand men of both par- ties had been sacrificed, but the Pharisees had suffered most. The remaining Pharisees trembled for their lives, and the night after the crucifixion of the eight hundred, eight thousand fied from Judaea, part of them to Syria and part to Egypt. The weakness of Alexander's position may read- ily be gauged by the fact of his powerlessness to prevent Judsea from being made the seat of war by the kings of Nabathaea and Syria. Yet his good fortune did not forsake him, for a sudden change in the affairs of Syria, resulting In the overthrow of its king, Aretas, worked to Alexander's advantage. Thereby he was enabled to engage in the siege of some important towns, colonized by Greeks and subject to Aretas : Diospolis, Pella and Gerasa. Marching north, he Invaded the lower Gaulonitis, with its capital, Gamala, the upper province, with the 46 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. II. town of Sogane, and the city of Seleucia. He forced the inhabitants of these towns to accept Judaism and the sign of the covenant. The city of Pclla, making a show of resistance, was destroyed. He also recov- ered the cities lying east of the Red Sea, w^hich had been taken from him by Aretas. The territory of Judaea now embraced within its circumference a num- ber of important towns ; it extended on the other side of the Jordan, from Seleucia in the north to Zoar, the city of palms, south of the Dead Sea ; from Rhinokolura and Raphia in the south, on the shores of the Mediterranean, to the mountains of Carmel in the northwest. The cities on the sea-coast were of the most importance. Alexander ordered some coins to be struck for his Greek subjects, wdth the Greek inscription, " King Alexander," while an anchor was stamped upon one side, and upon the other, in Hebrew characters, " Jonathan the King " (Jehonathan ha-Melech). His coins of an earlier date bore the same inscription as those of his prede- cessors, " The High Priest Jonathan, the Common- wealth OF the Jud^ans." After a campaign of three years' duration Alex- der returned to Jerusalem, where he w^as received with the honors due to. a conqueror. He had caused his crimes in part to be forgiven. In the very cen- ter of the kingdom, on a mount near the Jordan, he built a strong fortress, called after him, Alexan- DRiON ; and in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea, upon a towering height, protected on all sides by deep ravines, he raised the citadel of Machaerus, the formidable guardian of his trans-Jordanic conquests. These two mountain fortresses, together with the third, Hyrcanion, built by John Hyrcanus, on Middle Mountain, were so amply fortified by nature and by art that they were considered impregnable. Even in the last years of Alexander's reign, although he was suffering from an intermittent fever, he undertook the siege of some of the yet CH. IT. DEATH OF ALEXANDER. 47 unconquered fortresses of the trans-Jordanic terri- tory. During the siege of Argob, however, he was seized with so severe an attack that he was forced to prepare himself for death. The solem- nity of his last hours led him to look upon his former actions in a new light. He was horror- stricken to think how cruelly and foolishly he had persecuted the Pharisees, and how in consequence he had alienated himself from his people. He earn- estly enjoined upon his queen, whom he declared regent, to connect herself closely with the Pharisees, to surround herself with counselors from their ranks, and not to embark in any undertaking without hav- ing their consent. He also impressed upon her to keep his death secret from his army until the beleag- uered fortress should have fallen, and then to resign his body to the Pharisees, that they might either vent their rage upon it or else generously inter it. From an obscure but more authentic source we gather that Alexander sought to allay the queen's anxiety with regard to the party strife rampant in Jerusalem by the following words : " Do not fear either the true Pharisees or their honest opponents, but be on your guard against hypocrites of both sides (the counterfeit ones), who, when they commit sins, like the dissolute Prince Zimri, expect to be rewarded like Phineas, who was zealous for the Law." Alexander died in the forty-ninth year of his life and the twenty-seventh of his reign (79), and left two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. The Pharisees ungenerously appointed the anniversary of his death as a day of rejoicing. It was indeed most fortunate for the Judsean nation that a woman of gentle nature and sincere piety should have been called to the head of the State after it had been torn asunder by the reckless- ness of its former ruler. She came like the refresh- ing dew to an arid and sunburnt soil. The excited passions and the bitter hatred of the two parties had 48 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. II. time to abate during her reign, and the country rose above narrow partisanship to the worthier occupa- tion of advancing the common welfare of the nation. Although Queen Salome, or, as she was called, Alexandra, was devoted with her whole soul to the Pharisees, entrusting them with the management of home affairs, yet she was far from persecuting the opposing party. Her authority was so greatly res- pected by the neighboring princes that they did not dare make war with Judsea, and she shrewdly succeeded in keeping a mighty conqueror, who had possessed himself of Syria, from the confines of her own kingdom. Even the heavens, during the nine years of her reign, showered their blessings upon the land. The extraordinarily large grains of wheat gathered during this time in the fields of Judsea were kept and exhibited during many subsequent years. The queen ordered coins to be struck, bearing the same emblems as her predecessors, with the Greek inscription, *' Queen Alexandra." On the whole, her reign passed peacefully and happily. The Law, which had fallen into great neglect, became a fixed institution, and if it occasionally affected the Saddu- cees, who were constantly breaking it, they could not consider themselves victims of caprice. The crowded prisons were opened ; the Pharisees re- turned from exile, with their narrowed vision widened by the experience they had gained in foreign lands. Salome Alexandra proclaimed her eldest son Hyrcanus high priest ; he was a weak prince, whose private life was irreproachable, but who was not fitted for a public post of importance. Simon ben Shetach, the brother of the queen, the oracle of the Pharisaic party, stood high in her favor. So great a part did he play in the history of that time that it was called by many " the days of Simon ben Shetach and of Queen Salome." The chief post in the Council of Seventy, hitherto possessed by the high priest, was now, however, given up to the CH. II. JVDJEAN LAWS. 49 Pharisees by order of the queen. The Nasi, or president of the Great Council, was from this time on, as a rule, the most learned and the most res- pected of the Pharisees. No one, of course, could lay juster claim to this distinction than Simon ben Shetach. But Sijnon was not an ambitious man, and he determined to waive his own rights of prece- dence in favor of Judah ben Tabbai, who was then residing in Alexandria, of whose profound learning and excellent character he had formed a high esti- mate. The Alexandrian Judaean community had probably entrusted this celebrated Palestinean scholar with some important office. A flattering epistle was sent to Judah, inviting him to return to Jerusalem and was couched in this form : " From m.e, Jerusalem, the holy city, to thee, Alexandria : my spouse dwells with thee, I am forsaken." Judah ben Tabbai res- ponded to this appeal by hastening to Jerusalem. With the help of Simon he undertook the reorgani- zation of the Council, the improvement of adminis- tration of the law, the re-establishment of neglected religious observances, the furthering of education, and generally the fashioning of such regulations as the times required. Like Ezra and Nehemiah of old, these two zealous men insisted upon a return to the strictest form of Judaism ; and, if they were often obliged to employ severe and violent measures, these are not to be accounted to any personal malice, but to the sternness of the age itself. They were indeed scrupulously strict in their own conduct, and in directing those closely connected with them. From the days of Judah ben Tabbai and Simon ben Shetach, the rule of Judaean Law, according to the views of the Pharisees, may be said to have begun, and it grew and developed under each succeeding gen- eration. These two celebrated men have therefore been called " Restorers of the Law," who " brought back to the Crown (the Law) its ancient splendor." Their work commenced with the reorganization 50 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. II of the Synhedrion. The Sadducaean members were deprived of their seats, the penal code which they had added to the Biblical penal laws was set aside, and the old traditionary methods again made valid. The people had nothing to complain of in this change, for they hated the severity of the " eye for eye" punishment of the Sadducees. On the other hand, certain days of rejoicing, disregarded by the Sadducees, were proclaimed as half-holidays by the Pharisees. Witnesses in the law courts were no longer to be questioned merely upon the place where and the time when they had seen a crime committed, but they were expected to give the most detailed and minute evidence connected with it, so that the judge might be better able to pronounce a correct judgment and to detect the contradictory statements of witnesses. This was particularly designed as a protection against the charges of informers, who were numerous enough in an age when conquerors and the conquered were constantly changing parts. A salutary measure also was enforced to lessen the number of divorce cases, which the literal interpretation of the Penta- teuchal divorce laws, as administered by the Saddu- cees, had failed in doing. The High Court, as re- organized by the Pharisees, ordered the husband to give his repudiated wife a certain sum of money, by which she could support herself, and, as there was but little current coin amongst a people whose wealth consisted principally in the fruits of the soil or in cattle, the husband would often pause before allowing a momentary fit of passion or excitement to influence his actions. One of the reforms of this time expressly attributed to Simon ben Shetach was the promotion of better instruction. In all large towns, high schools for the use of young men from the age of sixteen sprung up at his instance. But all study, we may presume, was entirely confined to the Holy Scriptures, and CH. II. THE CEREMONY OF DRAWING THE WATER. 5 I particularly to the Pentateuch and the study of the Law. Many details or smaller points in the Law which had been partly forgotten and partly neglected during the long rule of the Sadducees, that is to say, from Hyrcanus's oppression of the Pharisees until the commencement of Salome's reign, were once more introduced into daily life. Neglected customs were renewed with all pomp and solemnity, the days of their re-introduction being celebrated with rejoicing, and any public mourning or fast thereon was suspended. Thus the ceremony of pouring a libation of water upon the altar during the Feast of Tabernacles, which had been mockingly ridiculed by Alexander, was in time reinstated with enthusiasm, and became a favorite and distinctive rite. Upon these occasions, on the night succeeding the first day of the festival, the women's outer court of the Temple was brilliantly illuminated until it glowed like a sea of fire. All the people would then crowd to the holy mount to witness or take part in the proceedings. At times these bore a lively character, such as torch-light processions and danc- ing ; at others they took the more solemn form of musical services of song and praise. This jubilee would last the whole night. At break of day the priests announced with a blast of their trumpets that the march was about to commence. At every halting-place the trumpets gathered the people together, until a huge multitude stood assembled round the spring of Siloah. Thence the water was drawn in a golden ewer. In solemn procession it was carried back to the Temple, where the libation was performed. The water streamed over the altar, and the notes of the flute, heard only upon the most joyful occasions, mingled with the rapturous strains of melody that burst from countless instru- ments. A similar national festival was the half-holiday of the wood-feast, held in honor of the wood that was 52 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. II. offered to the altar of the Temple ; it fell upon the fifteenth day of Ab (August). A number of white- robed maidens were wont to assemble upon this occasion in some open space among the vine-trees, where, as they trod the measure of the dance, they chanted strophes of song in the Hebrew tongue. It was an opportunity for the Judsean youths, spec- tators of this scene, to select their partners for life. This festival, like the preceding one, was inaugurated by the Pharisees in opposition to Sadducsean customs. The Synhedrion seized upon the sacrificial ardor of the people to introduce a measure which, above all things, was calculated to arouse feelings of patriotism in the nation, and which was diametrically opposed to the views of their rivals. The Sadducees had declared that the daily offerings, and in fact the needs of the Temple, should not be paid for from a national treasury, but with individual, volun- tary contributions. But the Council, in the reign of Salome Alexandra, decreed that every Israelite from the age of twenty — proselytes and freed slaves included — should contribute at least a half-shekel yearly to the treasury of the Temple. In this way the daily sacrifices acquired a truly national character, as the whole nation contributed towards them. Three collections were instituted during the year : in Judaea at the beginning of spring ; in the trans- Jordanic countries, in Egypt and Syria, at the Feast of Weeks ; and in the yet more distant lands of Babylonia, Media and Asia Minor, at the Feast of Tabernacles. These last collections were the richest, the Judseans who dwelt outside Palestine being very generous as well as very wealthy ; thus, instead of the silver or copper shekel or denaria, they offered gold staters and darics. Central places in each land were chosen where the offerings should be deposited until they could be taken to Jerusalem The most distinguished Judseans were selected tc carry them thither, and they were called " holy mes- CH. II. REFORMS. 53 sengers." In the Mesopotamian and Babylonian towns of Nisibis and Nahardea (Naarda), treasure- houses were built for these Temple gifts, whence, under a strong escort to protect them from the Parthian and Nabathaean robber-hordes, they were safely borne to Jerusalem. The communities of Asia Minor had likewise their treasure-houses, Apamea and Laodicea, in Phrygia, Pergamus and Adramyttium, in the country of Aeolis. From this stretch of land nearly two hundred pounds weight of gold was sent to Jerusalem about twenty years after the first proclamation had been issued. From this we may gather what an immense rev- enue poured into the Temple, leaving a large sur- plus after all the requisites for divine service had been obtained. The Temple of Jerusalem became thereby in time an object of envy and of greed. So far, the revival, introduced by Judah ben Tabbai and Simon ben Shetach, bore a harmless character ; it reinstated old laws, created new ones, and sought means of impressing them upon the memory and attention of the people. But no re- action can remain within moderate bounds ; it moves naturally towards excesses. The Sadducees, who were unwilling to adopt the Pharisaic rendering of the Law, were summoned to appear before the seat of justice and were unsparingly condemned. The anxiety to exalt the Law and to banish all opposition in the rival party was so great that upon one occasion Judah ben Tabbai had a witness executed who had been convicted of giving false testimony in a trial for a capital crime. He was, in this instance, desirous of practically refuting the Sadducaean views, forgetting that he w^as at the same time breaking a law of the Pharisees. That law required all the witnesses to be convicted of perjury before allowing punishment to be inflicted ; and, as one witness alone could not establish an accusation, so one witness alone was not punishable. 54 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. II. But the two chiefs were so clean-handed that Simon ben Shetach did not fail to upbraid his colleague on account of ill-ad\^ised haste, and Judah ben Tabbai evinced the profoundest remorse at the shedding of the innocent blood of the executed witness by resigning his office of president and by making a public acknowledgment of his contrition. A favorite maxim of Judah ben Tabbai reveals his gentle disposition. " Consider accused persons as lawbreakers only whilst before you for judgment ; the moment that is rendered, look upon them as innocent." Simon ben Shetach, who succeeded Judah as President of the Council, does not seem to have relaxed in severity towards the infringers of the Law. The rare case of witchcraft was once brought before him, when eighty women were condemned for the offense, and crucified in Ascalon. On ac- count of his unsparing severity, Simon ben Shetach brought upon himself such hatred of his opponents that they determined upon a fearful revenge. They incited two false witnesses to accuse his son of a crime punishable with death, in consequence of which he was actually condemned to die. On his way to the place of execution the young man uttered such vehement protestations of innocence that at last the witnesses themselves were affected, and confessed to their tissue of falsehoods. But when the judges were about to set free the con- demned, the prisoner himself drew their attention to their violation of the law, which enjoined that no belief was to be given witnesses who withdrew their previous testimony. " If you wish," said the con- demned youth to his father, " that the salvation of Israel should be wrought by your hand, consider me but the threshold over which you must pass without compunction." Both father and son showed them- selves worthy of their sublime task, that of guarding the integrity of the Law ; for to uphold it one sacri- CH. II. PERSECUTION OF THE SADDUCEES. 55 ficed his life, and the other, his paternal love. Simon, the Judaean Brutus, let the law pursue its course, although he, as well as all the judges, were convinced of his son's innocence. The severity of the Pharisaic Synhedrion had naturally not spared the leaders of the Sadducees. Diogenes, the favorite of Alexander, and a number of others who had advised or authorized the execu- tion of the 800 Pharisees, expiated this act of cruelty with their lives. The most distinguished of the Sadducees began to be uneasy at this constant per- secution ; they felt the sword of justice hanging over their heads, ready to descend upon them if they were guilty of the slightest infringement of the Law. In fear of their lives they turned to Alexander's second son, Aristobulus, who, without being a warm adher- ent of the Sadducees, was prepared to be the pro- tector of their party. He sent their chiefs to Alex- andra, commending them warmly to her mercy. When they appeared before the queen they reminded her of their services to the late king, and of the terror with which their name had once inspired Judaea's neighbors, and they threatened to offer their valuable services to the Nabathaean king Aretas or to the Syrian monarch. They implored the queen to grant them a safe retreat in some fortress where they would not be under the constant supervision of the Pharisees. The gentle-hearted queen was so much moved by the tears of these gray-haired war- riors that she entrusted them with the command of most of the fortresses, reserving, however, the three strongest — Hyrcanion, Alexandrion, and Machaerus. No political events of any great importance occurred during Alexandra's reign. Tigranes, king of Armenia, master of nearly the whole of Syria, had threatened to invade some of the Judaean provinces which had formerly belonged to the Syrian kingdom. The proximity of this ruler had greatly alarmed the queen, and she endeavored by gentle words and 56 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IL rich presents to prevent a contest with this power- ful Armenian king. Tigranes had received the Judaea n embassy, and accepted the queen's gifts most courteously, but they would hardly have pre- vented him from moving upon Judzea, had he not been compelled to devote himself to the defense of his own country from the attack of the Roman com- mander Lucullus (69). Alexandra fell hopelessly ill, and her illness occa- sioned the saddest of entanglements. The violent and ambitious Aristobulus, supposing that his mother destined his weak brother Hyrcanus as her successor, left the capital secretly, and arriving at the Galilean fortress of Gabata in the neighborhood of Sepphoris, upon the friendship of whose governor, the Sadducee Galaistes, he could rely, insisted upon its being entirely given up to him. He garrisoned it with mercenaries, furnished by some of the minor Syrian trans-Jordanic princes and the robber-hordes of Trachonitis, and was thus enabled to hold a large force at his command. Hyrcanus and the chiefs of the Synhedrion, fearing an impending civil war, entreated of the queen to take measures to prevent it, but without avail. Alexandra bade them trust to the army, to the fortresses that had remained faith- ful, and to the rich treasury, and devoted herself exclusively to preparation for death. She expired soon after, in the year 69, leaving her people and her kingdom to all the horrors of a civil war which was ultimately to destroy their dearly won independence. Salome Alexandra had reigned for only nine years ; she had witnessed the happy days of her people's freedom, and, when lying on her deathbed, may have felt in her troubled soul the presentiment that the coming night of slavery was at hand. She was the only queen in Judaean history whose name has been handed down to us with ven- eration, and she was also the last independent ruler of Judaea. CHAPTER III. HYRCANUS II. ARISTOBULUS II. Brothers contend for the throne— Arrangement between the brothers — The Idumaean Antipater — Hyrcanus's weakness — Aretas besieges Jerusalem — Interference of Rome — Pompey at Jerusalem— The Judsean colony in Rome — Flaccus in Asia Minor — Cicero's oration against the Judasans — Weakening of the power of the Synhe- drion — Shemaya and Abtalion — Violent death of Aristobulus and his son Alexander — Julius Caesar and the Judaeans — Antipater's sons Phasael and Herod— Herod before the Synhedrion — Opera- tions of Cassius in Judasa— Malich — Antigonus as King — Herod escapes to Rome. 69 — 40 B. c. E. When Providence has decreed that a State shall be destroyed, no event is more certain to hasten its fall than the contentions between two rival parties for the possession of the throne. The noblest upholders of the nation's rights are then invariably arrayed against each other, until at last the civil wars in which they are engaged are usually referred to some foreign ruler, whose yoke is all the more galling as Tie appears invariably in the light of a peacemaker with the olive branch in his hand. The death of the queen gave the first incentive to the war which broke out between the two brothers and divided the nation into two camps. To Hyr- canus II, her eldest son, the dying mother had, in right of his birth, bequeathed the throne. He, whose virtues would have graced the modest life of a private individual, but who would have been but an indifferent ruler even in a peaceful era, was cer- tainly not fitted to govern in troubled times. He did more harm by his good nature than many another could do by acts of tyranny. His younger brother was the direct opposite to him in character. Hyrcanus's cowardice contrasted vividly with the 57 58 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. III. reckless courage of Aristobulus, a quality in which he resembled his father Alexander. Added to this, he possessed unlimited ambition, which blinded him to practical considerations and quitted him only with his last breath. His aim was to be the mighty ruler of Judaea, and with the means at his command to make the neighboring countries subject to his rule. But his rash impetuosity prevented him from being successful, and, instead of gathering laurels, he brought only contempt upon himself and his nation. Hardly had Alexandra expired when Aristobulus, at the head of his mercenaries and Sadducaean followers, marched upon Jerusalem for the purpose of dethroning his brother. Upon Hyr- canus's side were ranged the Pharisees, the people and the army. The wife and children of Aristo- bulus had been imprisoned as hostages in the citadel of Baris in Jerusalem. The brothers met at Jericho, each at the head of his army. Hyrcanus was de- feated and fled to Jerusalem, the greater number of his troops going over to Aristobulus. The younger brother attacked and took the Temple, where many of his opponents had sought refuge. Hyrcanus was obliged to lay down his arms when he saw that the invader was master of the sanctuary and the capital. The two brothers met again, agreed upon making peace, and signed their cove- nant in the Temple. Aristobulus, as the one more capable of ruling, was to wear the royal crown, whilst Hyrcanus was to retain the high priest's diadem. This agreement was ratified by the mar- riage of Aristobulus's son Alexander to Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus. Aristobulus II, who had attained royal dignity by a successful stroke of arms, does not appear to have in any way excited the displeasure of the Pharisees. The position of the two parties in Judsea now assumed a different character, and they might have become extinct as parties, had it not been for the CH. III. AXTIPATER. 59 advent of a man whose measureless ambition and personal interest brought him to the fore, and who, together with his family, became the vampire of the nation, sucking its noblest blood away. This man was Antipater, the descendant of a distinguished Idumaean family, who, in common with all other Idumseans, had been compelled by John Hyrcanus to accept Judaism. Never had a mistaken action found its punishment more surely and swiftly. The fanaticism of Hyrcanus I was now to bring ruin upon his house and family. The wealth and diplo- matic talents of Antipater had raised him to the post of satrap of Idumsea during the reign of Alex- ander Jannaeus and of his queen. His courteous acts and generous presents had won the affections not only of his countrymen, but also those of the inhabitants of Gaza and Ascalon. Hyrcanus II, who required a guide in his helpless- ness, bestowed his confidence upon Antipater, who abused it, and exerted his influence to his own advantage. The Idumsean lost no opportunity of reminding Hyrcanus of the degrading part that he had had to play in having been called to the throne only to relinquish it to his younger brother. So success- fully did Antipater work upon his feelings, making him believe that Aristobulus was actually planning his death, that Hyrcanus was tempted into breaking the covenant he had sworn to respect, by calling in a foreign ruler to decide between the claims of the two brothers. Antipater had laid his plans beforehand with Aretas, king of the Nabathaeans. He fled one night from Jerusalem, bearing Hyrcanus with him, and arrived by forced marches at Petra, the capital of the Nabathaean king. Aretas was ready to help Hyrcanus, having been richly bribed by Antipater, and having the prospect of recapturing twelve cities east and south of the Dead Sea, which had been bought so dearly by the Hasmonaeans. He marched, therefore, upon Judaea, with an army of fifty thousand 6o HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. III. men, whose numbers were augmented by the fol- lowers of Hyrcanus (66). Thus the peace which the nation had enjoyed for nearly three years was disturbed for many a long- day by the scheming ambition of Antipater and the boundless folly of Hyrcanus. Aretas laid siege to Jerusalem in the beginning of the spring. To escape so deplorable a sight, many of the most distinguished Judseans (probably some of the Pharisaic leaders amongst them) fled from the capital to Egypt. The siege lasted for several months, the strong walls of the city to a certain extent making up for the insufficient num- bers of Aristobulus's warriors. But provisions began to fail, and, what was a far more serious consider- ation for the pious Judseans, the animals necessary for sacrificial purposes, particularly for the coming Paschal feast, were sensibly diminishing. But Aristo- bulus relied, and rightly so, upon the piety of the Judaean besiegers, who would not dare refuse the required victims for the altar. He ordered baskets to be lowered each day from the walls, containing the price of the lambs that were placed in the baskets, and were drawn up in return. But as the siege dragged on, and as the end seemed far off, some counselor — we may imagine that it was Antipater — advised Hyrcanus to hurry on the final scene, and to desist from supplying the sacrificial lamb. The basket that was lowered after this advice had been tendered was found to contain, when received within the city walls, a pig. This insult to the Law created a feeling of disgust amongst the besieged, and so deeply affected them that subsequently the breeding of swine was forbidden by the Synhedrion. The adherents of Hyrcanus were guilty of yet another enormity. Amongst those who had left the besieged city was a pious man called Onias, who had once successfully prayed for rain in a drought. The soldiers of Hyrcanus dragged him from his CH III. INTERFERENCE OF ROME. 6 1 solitary retreat, and believing that Heaven would again answer his prayer, commanded him to pro- nounce a curse upon Aristobulus and his followers. But instead of giving vent to a curse, the old man ex- claimed with fitting dignity, " Lord of the universe, as the besieged and the besiegers both belong to Thy people, I entreat of Thee not to grant the evil prayers of either party." The coarse soldiers could not understand the feelings that prompted such words, and murdered him as if he had been a crim- inal. In this way they thought they could silence the spirit of Judaism rising to protest against this civil war. But although the mighty ones of the land defied all right and proper feeling, the people were grievously distressed, and believed that the earth- quake and the hurricane that devasted Palestine and other parts of Asia at that time were the visible signs of Divine wrath. But more terrible than earthquake or hurricane was the harbinger of evil that appeared in Judaea, " the beast with iron teeth, brazen claws, and heart of stone, that was to devour much, and trample the rest under foot," which came to the Judsean nation, to drink its blood, to eat its flesh and to suck its marrow. The hour had struck when the Roman eagle, with swift flight, was to swoop down upon Israel's inheritance, circling wildly round the bleed- ing nation, lacerating her with cruel wounds and finally leaving her a corpse. Like inexorable fate, Rome watched over the destinies of the people of western Asia, plundering, dividing and destroying. Judaea was destined to the same lot. The bird of prey scented its booty from afar with astonishing precision, and hastened to put out the last spark of life. It came to Judaea for the first time in the person of Scaurus, a legate of Pompey. In leaving for Asia, Scaurus hoped to exchange an insignificant position In his own country for a powerful one in foreign lands. He had imag- 62 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. III. ined that in Syria he might acquire wealth and honor, but finding that country already in possession of other birds of prey, he turned his attention to Judaea. There he was warmly welcomed by the rival brothers, who looked upon him as an arbitrator in their diffi- culties. They both sent ambassadors to meet him, and as they knew that the Romans were not indiff- erent to gold, they took care not to appear empty- handed before him. But Aristobulus's gifts pre- vailed ; he sent three hundred talents, whilst Hyr- canus, or more properly speaking Antipater, gave little but promises. Roman interest accorded well with the greed of Scaurus. The Republic, fearing the growth of his power, began by insisting that the Nabathaean king should retire from the civil war in Palestine ; Scaurus was therefore able to com- mand Aretas to raise the siege of Jerusalem. Aretas complied, but was overtaken with his army at Rabbath Ammon by the troops of Aristobulus and defeated. For the moment Aristobulus might fancy that he was the victorious monarch of Judaea. The direc- tion that Roman statesmanship had taken, and the slow, deliberate movements that the commander Pompey employed against Mithridates, lulled him into the delusion that his monarchy was one of last- ing duration. A lover of war like his father, he began immediately to make inroads into neighbor- ing provinces, and also organized a fleet for warlike purposes. For two years Aristobulus nursed this vain dream, and he may even have wished to establish a show of independence by ordering, during this interval, coins to be struck in his name. But Anti- pater's inventive genius soon dissipated this dream ; for in the arts of bribery and diplomacy he w^as far superior to Aristobulus. Antipater had already in- duced Scaurus to side with Hyrcanus, and.to win for him the favor of Pompey, who was at this time gathering laurels in Syria. Pompey looked upon the quarrel between the two brothers as an excel- CH. III. THE GOLDEN VINE. 63 lent means for adding another conquest to his long lists of triumphs. Although Aristobulus had made him a magnificent gift, valuable in point of art as of intrinsic merit, the contest had not been brought to an end. This gift consisted of a golden vine, bearing clusters of golden grapes and golden leaves, valued at five hundred talents, and it had probably been designed by King Alexander for the adornment of the Temple. This work of art aroused the admiration of all those who saw it, and for that reason Pompey hastened to send it to Rome, where it was placed in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, as the harbinger of his triumphs. But the pious Judseans, naturally, would not allow their own sanc- tuary to be deprived of such an ornament, and spontaneously made contributions, some for golden grapes, others for golden leaves ; so that another golden vine, in later days, graced the outer court of the Temple. Although Pompey's vanity was flattered by this magnificent present, he was far from deciding in favor of the donor. He had the insolence to com- mand Antipater and Nicodemus, the two envoys of the rival brothers, to bid their masters appear in person at Damascus, where the vexed question should be discussed, and where he would decide in favor of one of the two princes. In spite of the deep humiliation which each felt, both Hyrcanus and Aristobulus appeared, and upheld their indi- vidual claims ; the one resting upon his rights of birth, the other upon his capacity for govern- ing. But a third party had also appeared before Pompey, which was to represent the right of the nation apart from the angry princes. Weary of the Hasmonaean quarrels, a republican party had sprung up, which was ready to govern the Judsean community, according to the letter of the Law, without an hereditary sovereign. The repub- licans especially complained that the last of the 64 HISTORY OP^ THE JEWS. CH. III. Hasmonaeans had changed the Judsean form of government from a hierarchy to a monarchy, in order to reduce the nation to servitude. Pompey, however, gave ear neither to the murmurs of the repubHcans nor to the arguments of the two brothers. It was not his intention to put an end to the strife ; what he desired was, in the guise of a peaceful arbitrator, to bring Judaea under the Roman rule. He soon saw that the weak-minded Hyrcanus (under the tutelage of a designing minister) would be better adapted for the part of a ward of Rome than the daring Aristobulus, and he inwardly deter- mined to support the weaker prince. But as he feared that by too rash a decision he would only be involved in a long contest with Aristobulus in an inaccessible country, and that he would only delay his triumphal entry into Rome, he endeavored to put off the younger brother with empty promises. Aristobulus, however, saw through the snare that was prepared for him, and determined to make sure of his freedom whilst there was yet time. He, therefore, entrenched himself in the citadel of Alex- andrion, intending to oppose the invasion of the enemy from the walls of the fortress. But Roman greed of conquest was now to manifest itself in all its abhorrent nakedness. The Roman commander was pleased to look upon this prince's justifiable act of self-defense as evidence of insubordination, and to treat him as an obstinate rebel. He crossed the Jordan at Beth- shean, and taking the field against Aristobulus, com- manded him to surrender, following up this com- mand by a series of delusive promises and serious threats, such as would have induced a more wily man to take a false step. The unfortunate prince surrendered the fortress of Alexandrion, but soon repenting of this folly, returned to entrench himself behind the strong walls of the city of Jerusalem, whither Pompey followed him. When the Roman CH. III. POMPEY AT JERUSALEM. 65 commander arrived at Jericho he heard, to his infinite satisfaction, of the suicide of Mithridates, the great and dangerous enemy of the Roman State, and he felt that he had now only to subdue Aristo- bulus before celebrating his triumphs in Rome. It seemed as if this end would be easily attained ; for Aristobulus, impelled by fear, came penitently to the feet of Pompey, loading him with presents, and promising to deliver Jerusalem into his hands. For this purpose Aristobulus started for the capital, accompanied by the legate Gabinius ; but their advance was repelled by the patriots, who closed the gates of Jerusalem upon them, and Pompey was compelled to lead his army against the city. The Hyrcanists, or lovers of peace, as they were called, opened their gates to the enemy ; but the patriots entrenched themselves upon the Mount of the Sanctuary, and destroying the bridge that connected the Temple with the town, prepared for a desperate defense. Pompey, much against his will, found that he was involved in a regular siege, the Temple Mount being strongly fortified. Then he sent to Tyre for his battering-rams, and ordered trees to be felled for bridging over the moats. The siege (asted for a long while, and might have continued still longer, had not the storming of the fortress been rendered easier to the besiegers by the patriots' strict observance of the Sabbath-day. In accordance with either a Pharisaic or a Sadducsean rendering of the Law, the besieged declared that they were permitted to resist an attack of the invaders on the Sabbath, but that they were infringing upon the sanctity of that day if they merely defended the walls from the enemy's on- slaughts. As soon as the Romans were aware of this distinction, they turned it to their own advan- tage. They let their weapons rest on the Sabbath- day, and worked steadily at the demolishing of the walls. Thus it happened that upon one Sabbath, in 66 IIISTORV OF THE JEWS. CH. III. the month of Sivan (June, 63 b. c), a tower of the Temple fell, and a breach was effected by which the most daring of the Romans prepared a way for entering the Sanctuary. The legions of Rome and the foreign mercenaries crowded into the court of the Temple, and killed the priests as they stood sacrificing before the altar. Many of the unfortu- nate victims threw themselves headlong from the battlements into the depths below, whilst others lit their own funeral pyre. It is believed that twelve thousand Judseans met their death upon this day. Pompey then penetrated into the Sanctuary, in order to satisfy his curiosity as to the nature of the Judaean worship, about which the most contra- dictory reports prevailed. The Roman general was not a little astonished at finding within the sacred recesses of the Holy of Holies, neither an ass's head nor, indeed, images of any sort. Thus the malicious fictions busily circulated by Alexandrian writers, and of a character so prejudicial to the Judseans, were now shown to be false. The en- trance of the Roman conqueror into the Temple, though deplorable enough, was in a way favorable to Judaism. Whether he was penetrated by awe at the sublime simplicity of the Holy of Holies, or whether he did not wish to be designated as the robber of sanctuaries, we know not ; but, wonderful to relate, Pompey controlled his greed for gold and left the treasury, containing 2000 talents, un- touched. But the independence of the nation ceased forever from that hour. Exactly a century after the Maccabees had freed their people from the tyranny of the Syrians, their descendants brought down the tyranny of the Romans upon Judaea. What did Hyrcanus gain by his supplication for aid from the Republic ? Pompey deprived him of his royal title, only leaving him the dignity of the high priesthood, with the doubtful appellation of ethnarch, and made him the ward of Antipater, who CH. III. SUBJECTION OF JUD^A. 67 was named governor of the country. The walls of Jerusalem were razed to the ground, Judaea put into the category of conquered provinces, and a tax was levied upon the capital. The territory was brought within narrower confines, and its extent became once more what it had been in pre-Has- monaean times. Several seaports lying along the coast, and inhabited by Greeks, as well as those trans-Jordanic towns which Hyrcanus and Alexan- der had conquered after hard fighting, and had incorporated with Judaea, were declared to be free towns by Pompey, and were placed under the guardianship of the Roman governor of Syria. But these cities, particularly the trans-Jordanic ones, joined together in a defensive and offensive league, calling themselves the Decapolis. Pompey ordered the most determined of his prisoners of war, the zealots, to be executed, whilst the rest were taken to Rome. The Judaean prince, Aristobulus, his son Antigonus, his two daughters, and his uncle Absa- lom were forced to precede Pompey's triumphal car, in the train of the conquered Asiatic kings and kings' sons. Whilst Zion veiled her head in mourn- ing, Rome was reveling in her victories ; but the Judaean prisoners that had been dragged to Rome were to become the nucleus of a community destined to carry on a new kind of warfare against long- established Roman institutions, and ultimately to modify or partly destroy them. There were, without doubt, many Judaeans living in Rome and in other Italian cities before Pompey's conquests, who may have emigrated into Italy from Egypt and Asia Minor for commercial objects. As merchants, bringing grain from the Nile country, or tribute money from Asia Minor, they may have come into contact with the Roman potentates. But these emigrants could hardly have formed a regular com- munal organization, for there were no authorized teachers of the Law amongst them. Probably, how- 68 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CII. III. ever, some learned men may have followed in Pom- pey's train of captives, who were ransomed by their compatriots, and persuaded to remain in Rome. The descendants of these prisoners were called according to Roman law libertini (the freed ones). The Judaean quarter in Rome lay upon the right bank of the Tiber, on the slope of Mount Vatican, and a bridge leading across that river to the Vatican was known for a long while by the name of the Bridge of the Judaeans (Pons Judaeorum). Theodus, one of the Judaeans settled in Rome, introduced into his own community a substitute for the pas- chal lamb, which could not be eaten outside of Jeru- salem, and the loss of which was a bitter deprivation to the exiles. This aroused the displeasure of the Judaeans in the home country, who wrote to Theodus : " If thou wert not Theodus, we should excommuni- cate thee." The Roman Judaeans influenced, to a certain extent, the course of Roman policy. For as the original emigrants, as well as the ransomed captives, enjoyed the power of voting in public assemblies, they were able at times, by their combined action on a preconcerted plan, by their assiduity, by their temperate and passionless conception of the situa- tion, perhaps also by their keen intelligence, to turn the scale upon some popular question. So impor- tant was their quiet influence that the eloquent but intolerant Cicero, who had learned to hate the Judaeans from his master ApoUonius Molo, was afraid on one occasion to give vent to his anti- Judaean feelings in a public speech, for fear of stir- ring them up against him. He had to defend the unjust cause of a praetor Flaccus, who w^as accused of having been guilty of num.erous extortions during his government of the Asia Minor provinces. Amongst other things, Flaccus had seized upon the votive offerings of the Temple {aurunt yudcBorimi) given by the community of Asia Minor — about two CH. III. CICERO AND THE JUD/EANS. 69 hundred pounds of gold, collected by the Judaean inhabitants of the towns of Apamea, Laodicea, Adramyttium, and Pergamus (62). In order to justify his proceedings Flaccus cited a resolution of the Senate, by which all exportation of money was forbidden from Roman to foreign provinces ; and although Judaea had been conquered by Roman arms, yet she did not enjoy the honor of being enrolled amongst the provinces of the Republic. The Roman Judseans were intensely interested in this trial, and many of them were present among the populace. The cowardly Cicero was so much afraid of them that he would have Hked to speak in a low tone in order to be heard by the Judges but not by the Judaeans. In the course of his defense he made use of an unworthy piece of sophistry, which might have made an impression upon some bigoted Roman, but which could hardly satisfy an intelligent mind. " It requires great decision of character," he said, " to oppose the barbaric super- stitions of the Judaeans and, for the good of our country, to show proper contempt towards these seditious people, who invade our public assemblies. If Pompey did not avail himself of a conqueror's rights, and left the treasures of the Temple untouched, we may be sure he did not restrain himself out of reverence for the Judaean sanctuary, but out of astuteness, to avoid giving the suspicious and slan- derous Judaean nation an opportunity of accusing him ; for otherwise he would hardly have spared foreign, still less Judaean, sanctuaries. When Jeru- salem was unconquered, and when the Judaeans were living in peace, they displayed a deeply-rooted antipathy to the glory of the Roman State, to the dignity of the Roman name, and to the laws of our ancestors. During the last war the Judaean nation proved most effectually how bitterly they hate us. How little this nation is beloved by the immortal gods is now evident, as her country is conquered 70 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. HI. and leased out." What impression this speech made upon the audience, and what decision was given to Flaccus, are unknown. A year later Cicero was punished by a sentence of banishment. He was not allowed to be seen within eighty miles of Rome, and his villas were razed to the ground. After Pompey's departure from Syria, the thral- dom imposed upon dismembered Judcea became more onerous than before, because she was left in the anomalous condition of a partly conquered province and a partly independent country. The powerful minister of Hyrcanus contributed to make this con- dition lasting and oppressive. He endeavored to strengthen his connection with Rome by munificent presents, trusting that the Republic would support him, in spite of his unpopularity with the Judsean people, who hated him as the cause of their subjec- tion. With the sweat from Judsea's brow he sus- tained the Roman commander Scaurus, who had opened a campaign against the Nabathsean king, Aretas. Meanwhile Alexander II, the eldest son of Aristobulus, escaping from captivity and arriving in Judaea, gained the support of the patriots, and putting himself at the head of fifteen hundred horse and ten thousand foot soldiers, marched upon Jeru- salem. Hyrcanus, or more properly speaking his master Antipater, could not resist so great a force, and left the capital to Alexander, who entered and had it fortified. The great Roman power fought alternately upon either side, according to the bribes that were offered its officials. Alexander felt so secure of his position that he had coins struck with the following inscription in Greek and Hebrew, '* King Alexander and High Priest Jonathan." Aulus Gabinius, however, the governor of Syria, and the most unscrupulous of the Roman extortioners of his times, succeeded in ending this revolt and in subdu- ing Alexander. The death-stroke that awaited the latter was only warded off by his mother, who, CH. III. AULUS GABINIUS. 7 1 embracing the knees of the Roman commander, entreated him to show mercy to her son. Gabinius succeeded in weakening the unity of the Judaean State, which had of late been so unworthily represented by the last of the Hasmonaeans, but the integrity of which had always been so jealously watched over by the Great Council. Judaea was no longer to be an independent State with self-govern- ing and legislative powers over the whole country, but was to be divided into five provinces, each hav- ing its own independent Senate or Synhedrion for the control of home affairs. These assemblies were held at specially appointed towns, at Jerusalem, Gazara, Emmaus, Jericho, and Sepphoris ; and Judaeans selected from the aristocratic party, who were well disposed towards Rome, were placed at the head of these councils. Although the fact of having dismembered the State testified in favor of Gabinius's political insight, yet he deceived himself as regarded the ultimate success of his plans. As the Synhedrion had grown out of the innermost life of the whole nation and had not been forced upon it by outside influences, it was no easy matter to break its centralizing power. The new scheme of dividing Judaea into five prov- inces was hardly introduced before it disappeared with Gabinius, leaving no trace of its existence. The Great Council remained as before the heart of the people, but its power was lessened by unfavorable circumstances. From that time it was called the '* Synhedrion," and to distinguish it from the small Councils, the "Great Synhedrion." But it could not boast of any political power, for that was now entirely in the hands of the Romans. Simon ben Shetach, the celebrated president of the Council, was succeeded by his two most distinguished disci- ples, Shemaya (Sameas) and Abtalion (Pollion). We can trace the despairing sentiments of that gen- eration in some of their sayings which have been 72 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. 111. handed down to us : " Love thy handicraft and shun governing ; estrange thyself from worldly power." " Be prudent in your words," said Abtalion to the law-framers ; " do not bring upon yourselves the penalty of exile, for your disciples would have to follow you into a land full of ensnaring influences (poisonous waters) which they would imbibe, and the sacred name of God would be through them pro- faned." These two presidents of the Synhedrion seem to have been Alexandrian Judseans, or at least they must have spent some years of exile in Alex- dria, perhaps with their master Judah ben Tabbai. During their twenty-five years of official life (60-35), whilst the political power of the Synhedrion was waning, their energy appears to have been directed towards its inner or moral power. They assembled a circle of eager disciples around them, to whom they taught the tenets of the Law, their origin and application. They were indeed accred- ited in after ages with so profound a knowledge of the Law, that to cite Shemaya or Abtalion in support of an interpretation was considered indisputable proof of its accuracy. One of their most distin- guished and most grateful disciples called them " the two great men of the era," and the peculiarly careful study of the Law, for which the Pharisees became so justly celebrated, may be said to have originated with them. For some little time the history of Judaea con- tains nothing but accounts of insubordination to Roman despotism and its unhappy consequences, of scenes of oppression and robbery, and of acts of spoliation of the Temple. Aristobulus, who had succeeded in escaping from Rome with his son Antigonus, now appeared in Judaea. The rule of the Romans was of so galling a character that Aris- tobulus, who had not been a favorite in the old days, was now received with unbounded enthusiasm. Suffi- cient arms could not be procured for the volunteers CH. III. ARISTOBULUS II AND ALEXANDER II. y^ who flocked to his camp. He was joined by Pitho- laus, a Judaean commander, who had once served as a general to Hyrcanus. Aristobulus placed himself at the head of 8000 men, and began immediately to regarrison the citadel of Alexandrlon, whence he hoped to exhaust the Romans by. guerrilla warfare. But his impatient temper led him into open battle, in which a large part of his army was utterly destroyed, and the rest scattered. Still unsubdued, Aristobulus threw himself with the remnant of his followers into the citadel of Machaerus, but at the approach of the Romans with their battering-rams he was obliged to capitulate, and for the second time was sent with his sons into captivity at Rome (56). Another insurrection, organized by his son Alex- ander, who had obtained his freedom from the then all-powerful Pompey, was doomed to come to as dis- astrous a termination. Galled by the oppression of the Governor of Syria, the inhabitants of that unfor- tunate country sent an army of 30,000 men to join Alexander. They commenced by killing all the Romans who came in their way, Gabinius's troops not being strong enough to oppose them. But the Governor craftily succeeded in detaching some of Alexander's followers from his ranks, and then tempted the Judaean prince into open battle. At Mount Tabor (in 55), the Judaeans were signally defeated. Meanwhile the three most eminent men of Rome — Julius Caesar, distinguished by his brilliant saga- city, Pompey by his martial renown, and Crassus by his boundless wealth — had agreed to break the power of the Senate, and to manage the affairs of the State according to their own will. The trium- virs began by dividing the fairest lands into prov- inces, which they separately appropriated. Syria fell to the share of Crassus, who was intensely avar- icious in spite of his vast riches. Judaea from this time on was annexed to Syria quite as a matter of 74 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. III. course. Crassus went out of his way, when march- iui^ against the Parthians, to enter Jerusalem, being tempted thither by the rich treasury of the Temple. He made no secret of his wish to seize upon the two thousand talents that Pompey had spared. In order to satisfy his greed, a pious priest, Eleazer, delivered up to him a solid bar of gold, the exist- ence of which, hidden as it was in a hollow staff of curiously carved wood, had been unknown to the priests. Upon the receipt of this gift, Crassus swore solemnly that he would spare the treasury of the Temple. But when was a promise known to be binding that was made by a Roman to a Judaean? He took the golden bar, the two thousand talents, and all the golden vessels of the Temple, which were worth another eight thousand talents (54). Laden wdth these and other spoils of the Sanctuary, Crassus marched against the Parthians ; but the Roman arms had always failed to subdue this people. Cras- sus was slain, and his army was so entirely disabled that his legate, Cassius Longinus, returned to Syria wath scarcely the tenth part of the army of one hun- dred thousand men (53). The Parthians pursued the weakened army, and the Syrians, weary of the Roman yoke, lent them secret aid. To the Judaeans this seemed an auspicious moment also for their own emancipation. It fell to Pitholaus to call the army together, which he led against Cassius. Fortune, however, always deserted the Judaean arms when they were turned against the Romans. Shut up in Tarichea on the lake of Tiberias, the troops were obliged to surrender. Upon the urgent demand of Antipater, Pitholaus was sentenced to death by Cassius, and thirty thousand Judaean warriors were sold into slavery (52). But the imprisoned Aristobulus looked forward once again to the hope of placing himself upon his father's throne and of banishing Antipater into CH. III. JULIUS C^:SAR. 75 obscurity. Julius Caesar, the greatest man that Rome ever produced, had openly defied the Senate, and broken with his associate Pompey. The bitter strife between the two Roman potentates lit the torch of war in the most distant provinces of the Roman empire. Caesar had given Aristobulus his freedom, and in order to weaken Pompey's influence, had sent him with two legions to Palestine to create a diversion in his favor. But the partisans of Pom- pey contrived to poison the Judcean prince. His followers embalmed his body in honey and carried it to Jerusalem, where it was buried beside the bodies of the Hasmonaean princes. His eldest son, the gallant Alexander, was decapitated by order of Sclpio, a follower of Pompey, at Antloch. The widow of Aristobulus and his surviving son Anti- gonus found protection with Ptolemy, prince of Chalcis, whose son Phillpplon had fallen in love with Alexandra, the daugfhter of Aristobulus, and had brought her to his father's court. But Ptolemy, out of criminal love to his own daughter-in-law, caused his son to be murdered and married the widow. Antipater continued to be Pompey's faithful ally, until the Roman general met with a miserable end in Egypt. Then the Idumaean offered his services to Caesar. When the great general found himself in Egypt, without sufficient forces, without news from Rome, in the midst of a hostile population, Antipater evinced a touching eagerness to help him, which did not remain unrewarded. He provided the army of Caesar's ally, Mithridates, king of Perga- mus, with all necessaries, and sent him a contingent of Judaean troops ; he aided him in conquering Pelusium, and conciliated the Egyptlan-Judaeans who had taken the part of his opponent. He was now well able to forego the favor of Hyrcanus. To no effect did Antigonus, the last surviving son of Aristobulus, seek an interview with Caesar, in 76 IIISTURV OF THE JEWS. CH. III. which he dwelt upon his father's and his brother's loyalty to the Roman general ; Antipater had but to display his wounds, which he had received in the very last campaign, to gain the victory over his rival. Caesar, who was an astute reader of men, and who had himself revolted from the legitimate order of things, knew well enough how to value Antipater's loyalty and energy, and did not support the rightful claims of Antigonus. Out of considera- tion for Antipater (47), Hyrcanus was proclaimed high priest and ethnarch, and to Judaea was given some relief from her burdens. The walls of Jeru- salem were rebuilt, the provinces that formerly belonged to Judaea, namely, Galilee, the towns in the plains of Jezreel, and Lydda, were once more made part of her territory. The Judaeans were no longer forced to provide winter quarters for the Roman legions, although the landowners were obliged to give the fourth part of their harvest every second year to the Roman troops. Caesar was altogether benevolent to the Judaeans, and rewarded them for their loyalty. To the Alexandrian Judaeans he granted many privileges, confirming their long-enjoyed equality with the Greeks, and permitting them to be governed by a prince of their own (Ethnarch). Money was again liberally provided for the Temple. Caesar enabled the supplies to reach their destination. He pre- vented the Greek inhabitants of Asia Minor from molesting the Judaeans of those provinces, from sum- moning them before the courts of justice on the Sabbath, from interfering with their public assem- blages and the building of their synagogues, and in general from disturbing them in their religious observances (47-44). Caesar must also have ex- tended his generosity to the Judsean community in Rome, for they evinced the warmest devotion to his memory. But in si:)ite of all these favors, the Judaean nation CH. III. C^SAR AND JUD/EA. ^'] as a whole remained cold and distant. The foreign communities of Judceans might bless Caesar as their benefactor, but the Palestinean Judaeans could see in him only the Roman, the patron of the hated Idumaean. So defiant was the attitude of the nation that Antipater felt himself compelled to threaten the disaffected with the triple wrath of Caesar, of Hyrcanus and of himself, whilst he promised liberal bounty to the obedient and loyal Judaeans. Mean- while, a small body of men taken from the army of Aristobulus had assembled under the command of Ezekias upon one of the mountain heights of Galilee, where they only awaited an opportune moment for raising the standard of revolt against Rome. The Romans, it is true, only looked upon this little army as a band of robbers, and upon Ezekias as a robber chieftain, but to the Judaeans they were the avengers of their honor and their freedom. For they were deeply mortified that Antipater had placed the reins of government in the hands of his sons, and that he cared only for the growing power of his house. Of the four sons born to him by Kypros, the daughter of the King of Arabia, he proclaimed Phasael, the eldest, Governor of Jerusalem and Judaea, and the second, Herod, a youth of the age of twenty. Governor of Galilee. This prince was destined to become the evil genius of the Judaean nation ; it was he who brought her as a bound captive to Rome ; it was he who placed his feet triumphantly upon her neck. Like an ominous cloud weighted down with misfortune, he seems from the very first to have thrown a dark shadow upon the life of the nation, which, as it slowly but surely advanced, quenched all light in the gathering dark- ness and withered all growth, until nothing remained but a scene of desolation. True to his father's policy, Herod began by basely flattering Rome and by wounding the Judaean spirit. In order to gain favor with Caesar, and also to establish the 78 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. III. security of his family, he undertook a campaign against the followers of Ezekias ; he captured the leader of the band, and, without any trial or show of justice, sentenced him and his followers to decapi- tation. Eagerwerethe words of praise and of thanks awarded to him by the Syrians and the Romans ; he was called the " Robber-subduer"; but whilst he was loaded with favors by Sextus Caesar, the Roman Governor of Syria, all true patriots mourned. The bitter degradation which the people suffered at the hands of this Idumeean family inspired some of the most distinguished Judaeans to lay before the weak-minded Hyrcanus the true state of their own and of their High Priest's new position. They explained to him that his dignity was but an empty name, that all real power lay with Antipater and his sons. They pointed to the execution of Ezekias and his followers as an act of gross contempt for the Law. These bitter complaints would have had but little effect upon the weak Hyrcanus, had not the mothers of the slain torn his heart with their cries of anguish. Whenever he appeared in the Temple they threw themselves before him and entreated him not to let the death of their sons remain unavenged. At last Hyrcanus permitted the Synhedrion to summon Herod before the seat of justice. But Antipater did not fail to warn his son of the terrible storm that was gathering over his head, and of the danger of entering Jerusalem alone and unarmed; while at the same time he cautioned him not to ap- pear surrounded by too many troops, and so arouse the suspicions of Hyrcanus. Herod appeared at the appointed time, but with an armed escort, and with a letter from Sextus Caesar, making the king answerable for the life of the favorite. Thus the day arrived for the great trial to which all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were looking forward with feverish impatience. When the members of the CH. III. HEROD BEFORE THE SYNHEDRION. 79 court had taken their places, the accused, clad in purple, with aggressive demeanor, and escorted by his followers, appeared before them. At this sight most of the accusers felt their courage fail them ; Herod's bitterest enemies looked downcast and shamefaced, and even Hyrcanus was embarrassed. A painful silence ensued, during which each man stood breathless. Only one member found words to save the waning dignity of the Council, the President, Shemaya. Quietly and calmly he spoke: " Is it not the intention of the accused to put us to death if we pronounce him guilty ? And yet I must blame him less than the king and you, who suffer such contempt to be cast upon the Law. Know, then that he, before whom you are all trembling, will one day deliver you to the sword of the executioner." These words roused the fainting courage of the judges, and they soon showed themselves to be as determined as they had before appeared to be cowardly. But Hyrcanus was afraid of their growing wrath, and commanded the Council to adjourn the sitting. Meanwhile Herod withdrew from the anger of the people, and was cordially received at Damascus by Sextus Caesar, who proclaimed him governor of Ccelesyria (46). Overwhelmed with honors, he was on the point of wreaking his vengeance upon the king and the Council, when his father and his brother Phasael urged him to milder measures. But he silently nursed his revenge, determined to gratify it upon some future occasion. The wide-spread disturbance occasioned by the murder of Caesar (44) involved Palestine in new troubles. The Roman Judaeans justly were so in- consolable at the death of this great man that they spent several entire nights mourning beside the grave that contained his ashes. The internal strug- gles, the bloody warfare, the constant proscriptions, were but the labor-throes of Rome previous to the 8o HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. III. birth of a new order of things ; but for Judcca they were to a certain extent a fresh attack of a fatal dis- ease. The heads of the republican party supplanted those of the Caesarian party, but merely to be sup- planted by them again in a short time ; and this was the case not only in Judaea, but in various parts of the Roman empire. The republican, Cassius Lon- ginus, had arrived in Syria for the purpose of raising troops and money, and demanded that Judaea should supply him with 700 talents. Cassius was in des- perate haste, for any moment might deprive him of the supreme power with which he ruled at that time over persons and events in Syria. Thus he threw the inhabitants of four Palestinean cities into chains and sold them into slavery, because their contribu- tions were not delivered quickly enough. The eyes of the unfortunate monarch, Hyrcanus, were opened at last to the fact that the Idumaeans were seeking only their own interest under the cloak of warm partisanship for his cause. He began to be suspicious in his dealings with them, and turned for support to a true and faithful friend, Malich, who had long since recognized the duplicity of the Idu- maeans. As yet Hyrcanus knew nothing of the fiendish plot by which he was to be dethroned, and which was to raise Herod, by the help of the Roman legions, to the throne of Judaea. But this rumor had reached the ears of Malich. Determined to rid the king of the hated Antipater, he contrived to poison him when he was feasting at a banquet with Hyrcanus (43). In cutting at the root, he failed, however, to de- stroy the growing evil, for Herod surpassed his father, not only in determination and in audacity, but also in duplicity. He avenged the death of Antipater by the assassination of Malich. All attempts to ruin the Idumaean brothers were unsuccessful. Even when Herod fell suddenly and grievously ill, Phasael was fortunate enough to subdue his enemies. A plot conceived by Antigonus, the son of Aristo- CH. III. THE TRIUMVIRS AND HEROD. 8 1 bulus II, supported by his kinsman Ptolemy of Chalcis, to deprive the Idumaeans of their power, failed likewise, and Herod compelled Hyrcanus to crown him with the garland of victory when he made his entry into Jerusalem. As a means of disarming this terrible and mighty prince, Hyrcanus tried to attach him to his house, by betrothing him to his granddaughter Mariamne, celebrated in history no less for her beauty than for her misfortunes. The victim was to be bound to the executioner by the bonds of marriage, and her own mother, Alexandra, helped to bring about this miserable alliance. Fortune smiled so persistently upon the Idumaean that all changes in the political world, however they might appear to damage his cause, only gave him greater power. The republican army was completely routed at Philippi (in 42), the leaders, Brutus and Cas- sius, committed suicide, and the Roman world lay at the feet of the second triumvirate — Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus. Herod and Phasael looked upon these changes with a troubled eye ; for had they not displayed the warmest zeal for the* opponents of the triumvirate? Besides this, some of the Judaean nobles had hurried forth to meet the victor Antony in Bithynia, carrying to him their complaints of the rapacity of the Idumsean brothers. But Herod soon found the means to scatter the clouds. He also appeared before Antony with a smooth tongue and ready money. Antony did not fail to remember that he had formerly tasted of Antipater's hospitality. He turned a deaf ear to the Judaean nobles, and dis- missed Herod with marks of favor. The voice of the nation, which made itself heard through its ambassadors, was no longer heeded. Antony sen- tenced some of the unfortunate envoys to be thrown into prison, and others to be executed, whilst he proclaimed the two Idumaean brothers governors of Judaea, with the title " Tetrarch." 82 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. III. At one time it seemed as if this constant good fortune were about to desert the Idumaean brothers and to return to the Masmon:ean house. The Par- thians, stimulated by the fugitive Roman repubHcan Labienus, had made, under the command of their kind's son Pacorus, and his commander, Barza- pharnes, an inroad into Asia Minor and Syria, whilst Mark Antony was reveling at the court of the be- witching queen Cleopatra. The Parthians, enemies of the Roman republic, were also violently antago- nistic to Herod and Phasael ; they became doubly so on account of their connection with Lysanias, the son of Ptolemy, who was related to the house of Aristob- ulus, and who had promised great rewards to the Parthian commanders if they would sweep the hated brothers out of the way, dethrone Hyrcanus, and crown Antigonus. The Parthians agreed to this scheme, and, dividing their army into two detach- ments, marched by the sea-coast and the inland road upon Jerusalem. At every step they were met and joined by Jud^ean troops, who outstripped them in their haste to arrive at the capital. Upon entering Jerusalem they besieged the Hasmonaean palace, and flocked to the Mount of the Temple. The com- mon people, in spite of being unarmed, supported the invaders. The festival of Pentecost was at hand, and a crowd of worshipers from all parts of Judaea were streaming into Jerusalem ; they also declared themselves in favor of Antigonus. The Idumseans h Id the palace and its fortress, and the invaders, the city. Hyrcanus and Phasael were at last per- suaded by Pacorus, the king's cup-bearer, to go as envoys of peace to the general, Barzapharnes, whilst Herod was closely watched. Upon arriving at Ecdippa the two unfortunate ambassadors were thrown into prison, where Phasael committed suicide, and where Hyrcanus had his ears mutilated, in order to incapacitate him thereafter for holding his priestly office I'lots were also laid to ensure the downfall of CH. III. PLOTS AGAINST HEROD. 83 Herod, but, warned by some faithful followers of his brother, he contrived to escape from his palace at night. Accompanied by his bride Mariamne, and by the female members of his family, he hurried to the fortress Masada, which he left in command of his brother Joseph, retiring first into Arabia, then into Egypt, and finally to Rome. He was followed by the execrations of the people. Antigonus was now proclaimed king of Judaea (the Parthians carrying off Hyrcanus to Babylon), and feeling himself to be in truth a monarch, he had coins struck with his Hebrew and Greek names : " Mattathias, High Priest, and the Commonwealth of the Judaeans," and also " King Antigonus." The Parthian auxiliary troops were dismissed, and Antigonus destroyed the last of the Roman contingent that still held some of the fortresses in Palestine. So Judaea was once more freed from foreign soldiery, and could indulge in the sweet dream of regained independence after thirty hard years of internal troubles and terrible warfare. CHAPTER IV. ANTIGONUS AND HEROD. Weakness of Antigonus and Herod's Strength of Character — Con- test for the Throne— Herod becomes King — Proscriptions and Confiscations — Herod's Policy — Abolition of the Hereditary Tenure of the High Priesthood— Death of the High Priest Aristobulus — War with the Arabians — The Earthquake — Death of the last of the Hasmona^ans — Hillel becomes the Head of the Synhedrion — His System of Tradition — Menahem the Essene — Shammai and his School— Mariamne — Herod's Magnificence and Passion for Building— Herod rebuilds the Temple — Herod executes his Sons Alexander and Aristobulus — Antipater and his Intrigues — The Pharisees under Herod — The Destruction of the Roman Eagle — Execution of Antipater and Death of Herod. 40—3 B. c. E, It is certain that Judaea derived her greatness and independence rather from the tact and foresight of the first Hasmona^ans than from their skill in arms ; and in like manner she suffered humiliation and bondage from the short-sightedness of the last Has- monsean kings, who did not understand how to make use of the advantages within their grasp. Events were most favorable for Antigonus to acquire ex- tended power. The Roman leaders were violently opposed to one another. The provinces in the east, unimportant in the eyes of Octavius, were looked upon by Antony as the abode of luxury and pomp rather than as an arena for warlike achievements. The soft arms of Cleopatra had made the rough couch of the war-goddess distasteful to him. The Parthians, who hated the greed of Rome, had vali- antly repulsed her troops. Had Antigonus under- stood how to keep alive the hatred of the people towards the Idumaean house, the Romans them- selves would have courted him as an ally instead of shunning him as an enemy, so eager were they for 84 CH. IV. charactp:r of axtigonus. 85 assistance in staying- the progress of the Parthians. The mountain tribes of Galilee had already declared in favor of Antigonus ; and Sepphoris, one of their cities, had been converted into an arsenal ; besides, the caves of Arbela sheltered numerous bands of freebooters, who might have proved dangerous to the enemy's rear. But Antigonus was neither a statesman nor a general. He did not know how to turn to account the varied material which he had at hand. The whole of his strength was frittered away upon trivial aims ; his leading passion was the revenge which he meditated against Herod and his brothers, and this retarded instead of stimulat- ing his activity. He did not know how to rise to the truly royal height whence he could look down with contempt instead of with hatred upon the Idumaean upstarts. During his reign, which lasted three years and a half (40-37), he undertook nothing great or decisive, although the Roman officers, who for the sake of appearances pretended to support Herod, in point of fact usually occupied a neutral position. Even amongst his own people Antigonus did not know the secret of winning men of influence to his cause so that they would stand or fall with him. The very leaders of the Synhedrion, Shemaya and Abtalion, averse to Herod on account of his over- whelming audacity, were not partisans of Antigonus. It is somewhat difficult to understand entirely the reason of this aversion to the Hasmonsean king. Had Antigonus professed allegiance to Sadducaan principles, or was there personal jealousy between the representatives of the royal power and the teachers of the Law ? We are led to believe from one circumstance, insignificant in itself, that the dis- like originated from the latter cause. It happened once, upon the day of Atonement, that the entire congregation, according to custom, had followed the high priest, Antigonus, at the close of the divine ser- 86 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. vice, from the Temple to his own residence. On the way they met the two Synhedrists, Shemaya and Abtalion ; they quitted their priest-king to form an escort for their beloved teachers of the Law. Antigonus, vexed at this apparent insult, expressed his displeasure to the Synhedrists by an ironical obeisance, which they returned in the same offensive way. This unfortunate variance with the most influential men, coupled with Antigonus's lack of generalship and statecraft, brought misfortune upon himself, his house and the nation. His rival Herod, who possessed all those qualities in \vhich he \vas deficient, was a man of a different stamp. When fortune frow^ned upon him for a time, he could always win back her smiles. His flight from Jerusalem had been so desperate for him that at one moment he contemplated suicide. His design to make an ally of the Nabathaean king failed. He wandered through the Judaean-Idumaean desert, an outcast and penniless, but yet unbroken, and revolving far-reaching schemes. He turned to Egypt ; there Cleopatra offered to make him gen- eral of her army, but he refused, for he still clung to the hope of wearing the crown of Judaea. He took ship for Rome, and after being tempest-tossed and narrowly escaping shipwreck, he arrived at his des- tination at the favorable moment when Octavius and Antony had once more agreed upon the Brun- disian treaty. He found no difficulty in persuading Antony that he could render him great service in repulsing the Parthians, and he convinced him that Antigonus, raised to the throne of Judaea by the Parthians, would always be an implacable enemy to the Romans. Antony was completely deceived by the craft and subtlety of Herod. He spoke favor- ably of him to Octavius, who dared not refuse him anything. Thus within seven days, Herod succeeded in having the Senate proclaim him King of Judaea, and Antigonus pronounced an enemy of Rome (40). CH. IV. CHARACTER OF HEROD. 8/ This was the second death-blow that Rome had dealt the Judaean nation, in delivering her up to the mercy of an aHen, a half-Judaean, an Idumaean, who had his own personal insults to avenge. Judaea was forced to submit, and in addition to pay tribute- money to Rome. Herod, seeing that his ambition was to be crowned with success, now left Antony (who had loaded him with honors), in order to assume the royal title conferred upon him. He left Rome and arrived at Acco (39). He was supplied with sums of money by various friends, and especially by Saramalla, the richest Judaean in Antioch. With these moneys he hired mercenaries and subdued a great part of Galilee. He then hastened south- wards, to relieve the fortress of Masada, where his brother Joseph was hard pressed by the friends of Antigonus. This struggle was of long duration, as the Romans were unwilling to take an active part in the contest. Herod felt the necessity of appearing in person in Antony's camp, which at that moment was pitched before Samosata, there to plead his own cause. Partly in return for the services he ren- dered to the Roman commander upon this occasion, and partly through his persuasive powers, he induced Antony to send Sosius, one of his generals, at the head of two legions, to resolutely carry on the contest against Antigonus, and to establish upon the throne the king selected by Rome. This war was carried on by Herod with impla- cable severity. Five cities in the neighborhood of Jericho, with their inhabitants to the number of 2000, who had sided with Antigonus, he ordered to be burnt. In the following spring {2,7), he com- menced the siege of Jerusalem. Previous to this, he celebrated in Samaria, with hands stained with the blood of its inhabitants, his nuptials with Mari- amne, to whom he had now for several years been betrothed. SS HISTORY OF TllK JKWS. CH. IV. As soon as Sosius had advanced into Judaea with a large army of Roman infantry, cavalry and Syrian mercenaries, the siege of Jerusalem was pressed. The besieging army numbered one hundred thou- sand men. They built ramparts, filled up the moats, and prepared their battering-rams. The besieged, though suffering from want of food, de- fended themselves heroically. They made occa- sional sorties, dispersed the workmen, destroyed the preparations for the siege, built up a new wall, and harassed the besiegers to such an extent that after one month's labor they had not advanced to any extent in their work. But the two Synhe- drists, Shemaya and Abtalion, raised their voices against this opposition, and recommended their countrymen to open their gates to Herod. This division of purpose amongst the besieged, combined with the attacks of the invaders, may have hastened the fall of the northern wall, which took place at the end of forty days. The besiegers rushed into the lower town and into the outworks of the Temple, while the besieged, with their king, fortified themselves in the upper town and on the Temple Mount. The Romans were occupied during another fortnight with the storming of the south wall. On a Sabbath evening, when the Judaean warriors were least expecting an attack, a portion of the wall was taken, and the Romans rushed like madmen into the old part of the city and into the Temple. There, without distinction of age or sex, they slaughtered all who came in their way, even the priest beside his sacrifice. By a strange fatality, Jerusalem fSU on the anniversary of the day on which, twenty-seven years previously, the Temple had been taken by Pompey. It was hardly possible for Herod to restrain his savage soldiery from plun- dering and desecrating the holy spot, and it was only by giving costly gifts to each soldier that he prevented the entire destruction of Jerusalem. CH. IV. POLICY OF HEROD. 89 Antigonus was thrown into chains and sent to Antony, who, upon Herod's persistent entreaties, and contrary to all custom and usage, had him tor- tured and then ignobly beheaded. This disgraceful treatment excited the opprobrium even of the Romans. Herod, or, as the people called him, the Idumcean slave, had thus reached the goal of his lofty desires. His throne, it is true, rested upon ruins and upon the dead bodies of his subjects ; but he felt that he had the power to maintain its dignity, even if it were necessary to carry a broad river of blood round its base. The bitter hatred of the Judaean people, whose ruler he had become without the slightest lawful title, was nothing to him as compared with the friendship of Rome and the smile of Antony. His line of action was clearly marked out for him by the situation of affairs : he had to cling to the Romans as a support against the ill-will of his people, and meet this ill-will by apparent con- cessions, or control it by unrelenting severity. This was the policy that he followed from the first moment of his victory until he drew his last breath. During a 1 the thirty-four years of his reign he followed this line of policy, cold and heart- less as fate, and entailing the most terrible conse- quences. Even in the first confusion attendant upon the conquest of the Temple Mount, he had not lost his coolness and vigilance, but had ordered his satellite Costobar to surround the exits of Jeru- salem with his soldiery, and thus to prevent the escape of the unfortunate fugitives. The followers of Antigonus were slain in large numbers, many amongst them being of the most distinguished families. Herod did not forget old grievances. The Synhedrists, who twelve years previously had decreed his death, were killed to a man, with the exception of Abtalion and Shemaya, who had been hostile to Antigonus. He seized the property of 90 HISTORY OF TIIK JEWS. CH. IV. those whom he executed or otherwise condemned for the royal treasury ; for this worthy pupil of Roman masters was fully alive to the advantages of pro- scription and confiscation. He passed over the Has- moniean house in selecting a high priest, and chose a certain Ananel, a descendant of Aaron, but not of high-priestly family, for that office. He declared that his own was an old Judaean family which had returned from Babylonia, wishing in this way to obliterate the fact that he was descended from an Idumaean ancestor who had been forced to accept Judaism. The natives of Jerusalem, who had a good memory for his true extraction, did not indeed lend an ear to this invention, but foreign Judseans and heathens may perhaps have been deceived by it. His confidential friend and historian, Nicolaus of Damascus, relates this fiction as coming from his own lips. At the death of Shemaya and Abtalion, the presidents of the Synhedrion w-ere chosen from a Babylonian-Juda;an family, that of Bene Bathyra, Two persons still existed who might prove dan- gerous to Herod: an old man and a youth — Hyrca- nus, who had once worn the crown and the priestly diadem, and his grandson Aristobulus, Herod's brother-in-law, who had claims upon both the royal and the priestly dignity. Herod could not devote himself to the calm enjoyment of his conquest until these two should be powerless. Hyrcanus, it was true, who had fallen captive to the Parthians, had been mutilated by them, and was therefore unfit to resume his priestly office ; but his captors had generously granted him freedom, and the aged monarch had been joyfully and reverentially w^el- comed by the community of Babylonian Jud2eans. In spite of the devotion which he received from these people, Hyrcanus had an intense longing to return to his native land, and Herod was afraid that he might induce the Babylonian Judajans or the Parthians to take up his cause and help him regain CH. IV. ARISTOBULUS. 9I his throne, from which the latter had torn him. Anxious to avert this danger, Herod bethought him- self of taking Hyrcanus from Parthian influence and of bringing him under his own power. It was thus that the aged monarch received a pressing invitation to Jerusalem to share the throne and the power of king Herod, and to receive the thanks of the Idumaean for past acts of kindness that Hyrcanus had shown him. Vainly did the Babylonian Judaeans warn the credulous prince not to let himself be drawn a second time into the eddy of public life ; he hurried to his doom. Herod received him with every mark of respect, and gave him the place of honor at his table and in the Council, masking his treachery so completely that Hyrcanus was entirely deceived. He was unarmed and powerless in a golden cage. But more dangerous to Herod seemed his young brother-in-law Aristobulus, the only brother of Ma- riamne, who, on account of his Uncage, his 3'outh, and his surpassing beauty, had attracted the love and devotion of all his people. Herod, in debarring him from the dignity of high priest, imagined that he had successfully destroyed his influence. But this was not so. Alexandra, the mother of Mariamne and Aristobulus, as well versed in intrigue as Herod himself, had succeeded in obtaining Antony's favor for her son. She had sent the portraits of her chil- dren, the most beautiful of their race, to the Roman triumvir, believing his weak nature might be worked upon most favorably through the senses. Antony, in truth, struck by the portraits, requested to see Aristobulus. But Herod, in order that this meeting should not take place, suddenly proclaimed the young Hasmonaean high priest, and Ananel was deprived of this dignity. But Alexandra was far from being satisfied, for she was secretly determined that her son should also wear the crown which his ancestors had worn. Herod, fully alive to his 92 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. peril, was all the more determined to rid himself of this dang^eroiis youth. Aristobulus had already gained the heart of the people, and whenever he appeared in the Temple, every eye hung upon his noble and perfect form, every glance seemed to avow that the Judseans were longing to see this last scion of the Hasmonaean house seated upon the royal throne. Herod durst not act with open violence against his rival, who was looked upon with special favor by Queen Cleopatra, but as usual he resorted to treachery. He invited Aristobulus to Jericho, and bade his followers dispatch the youth whilst he was disporting in the bath. Thus died, at the early age of seventeen, Aristobulus III., the last male representative of the Hasmonaean house. Herod then reappointed his puppet Ananel as high priest. It was vain for the Idumaean to affect deep grief at the death of his young brother-in-law, it was vain for him to throw sweet perfume upon his body ; all the relations and friends of the murdered Hasmo- naean accused Herod in their hearts of his death, although their lips gave no utterance to their thoughts. But this crime brought its own bitter punishment with it, and made Herod's whole life one long tale of misery. The agony of remorse that might have wrought some change upon a less hardened nature was not felt, but only an ever-increasing suspicion towards those of his own household, which urged him to heap crime upon crime, to murder his nearest relatives, even his own children, until he became at last the most terrible example of a sin-laden exist- ence. Alexandra, who had staked her ambitious hopes upon the coronation of her son, and who now found herself so cruelly deceived, did not hesitate to accuse Herod before Cleopatra of the murder of Aristo- bulus. This queen, whose passions were uncon- trolled, and who looked with an envious eye upon Herod's newly acquired kingdom, took advantage CH. IV. MARIAMNE. 93 of his crime to make its author appear odious in the eyes of Antony. Herod was summoned to Lao- dicea. Trembling for his life, the vassal king obeyed the summons, but succeeded in ingratiating himself so thoroughly by costly gifts and by carefully chosen yet eloquent words, that not only was the death of Aristobulus overlooked, but he was distinguished by marks of esteem, and sent back to Jerusalem, full of happy self-confidence. He lost, however, one precious pearl from his crown. The far-famed dis- trict of Jericho, celebrated for its wealth of palm- trees and its highly-prized balsam, had been given by Antony to Cleopatra, and Herod was forced to accept two hundred talents in lieu as tribute-money from the queen. He could, however, rest well satis- fied with this loss, when comparing it with the danger from which he had escaped. On the threshold of his palace, however, the demon of discord awaited him, ready to fill his whole being with despair. On the eve of his departure he had entrusted his wife Mariamne to the care of Joseph, the husband of his sister Salome, and had given him the secret command that, in case of his falling a victim to Antony's displeasure, Joseph should murder both Mariamne and Alexandra. Love for his beautiful wife, whom he could not bear to think of as belong- ing to another, added to hatred of Alexandra, who should not triumph in his death, prompted this fiendish resolve. But Joseph had betrayed his secret mission to Mariamne, and had thus plunged another dagger into the heart of that unhappy queen. When a false report of Herod's death became current in Jerusalem, Mariamne and her mother prepared to put themselves under Roman protection. Herod's sister Salome, who hated both her husband Joseph and her sister-in-law Mariamne, made use of this lact to calumniate them upon her brother's return, accusing them of a mutual understanding and undue \ntimacy. Herod at first turned a deaf ear to this 94 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. calumny, but when Mariamnc disclosed to her hus- band, amidst tears of indignation, that Joseph had confessed his secret mission to her, then the king's wrath knew no bounds. Declaring that he fully believed his sister's accusations, he beheaded Joseph, placed Alexandra in confinement, and would have had Mariamne slain, had not his love for his queen surpassed even his rage. From that day, however, the seeds of distrust and hatred were sown in the palace, and they grew and spread until one member of the royal family after another met with an untimely and violent death. Outwardly, however, fortune appeared to smile upon Herod, carrying him successfully over the most difficult obstacles in his path. Before the sixth year of his reign had ended, threatening clouds began to gather over his head. A surviving sister of the last Hasmonaean king Antigonus had arisen as the avenger of her brother and his race, and had, in some way or other, possessed herself of the fortress of Hyrcanion. Herod had hardly disarmed this female warrior before he was threatened by a more serious danger. Cleopatra, who had always hated the Judae- ans, and who had been most ungenerous to that community in Alexandria during a year of famine, had again attempted to effect Herod's ruin by awakening Antony's displeasure against him. Afraid of this violent and yet crafty queen, and alarmed at the hatred of his own people, who were longing for his downfall, Herod determined upon preparing some safe retreat, where his life would at all events be secure from his enemies. He chose for this purpose the fortress of Masada, which nature had rendered almost impregnable, and which he fortified still more strongly. But Cleopatra was already devising another scheme for the downfall of her enemy. She succeeded in entangling him in a war with Malich, the Nabathsean king, and thus endeavored to bring about the ruin of two equally hated monarchs. CH. IV. CLEOPATRA OPPOSES HEROD. 95 But Herod gained two decisive victories over the Nabathseans, which alarmed Cleopatra, and caused her to send her general Athenion to the aid of Malich. The Judaean army sustained a terrible defeat, and Herod was beaten back across the Jor- dan. This disaster was followed by an earthquake, which alarmed and dispirited the Judaean troops to such an extent that they lost all courage and were almost powerless before the enemy. But Herod, with true genius, succeeded in rousing his people, and in leading them victoriously against the Naba- thseans. Malich was forced to become the vassal of the Judaean king. Hardly, however, was peace restored before a storm arose that threatened to shake the Roman world to its very depths and to destroy the favorite of the Roman generals. Ever since that day when Rome and her vast possessions lay at the feet of the triumvirs, who hated each other cordially, and each one of whom wished to be sole ruler of the state, the political atmosphere had been charged with destructive elements that threatened to explode at any given moment. Added to this, one of the three leaders was completely under the sway of the dissolute and devilish Queen Cleopatra, who had set her heart upon becoming mistress of Rome, even though this should entail the devastation of whole countries by fire and by sword. It was during this highly excited period that a Judaean author foretold, in beautiful Greek verse, written in the form of a sibylline prophecy, the coming destruction of the Roman-Greek state, and the reign of Belial, who would decoy the unhappy ones to their final destruction ; but this Judaeo- Greek seer also heralded the coming of a glorious Messiah. An era of crime had certainly begun, and a Belial had appeared in the person of the half- Judaean Herod, but as yet no Messianic dawn of better things was apparent. g6 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. With the declaration of war between Octavius and Antony, a fierce strife broke out between the Western and the Eastern provinces of Rome ; it was Europe against Asia — a w^ar of nations. But it came to a sudden end with the fall of Antony in the battle of Actium (31). This blow struck Herod severely ; neither he nor his friends doubted for one moment that he w^ould be submerged in the ruin of his protector, for he had been closely allied to Antony. He was prepared for the worst, but he determined not to be outlived by the aged Hyr- canus, by his wife Marlamne, or by his mother-in-law Alexandra. He accused Hyrcanus of having con- spired with the Nabathaean king, and ordered the innocent monarch to be executed. Mariamne and Alexandra he placed under the guardianship of the Ithuraean Soem in the fortress of Alexandrion. Herod then prepared to present himself before the conqueror, Octavianus Caesar, and if he met with his death, as was most probable, Mariamne and her mother were to be instantly murdered. On the eve of Herod's departure, he found him- self compelled to make some change in the Synhe- drion, and to appoint the Babylonian Hillel, a man unknown until then, as one of the presidents. This gave a new direction to the spirit of Judaism, which has affected that faith down to the present. Hillel, born about the year 75, traced back his descent, on his mother's side, to the house of David. Although his lineage was a distinguished one, he was living in needy circumstances, and was supported by his rich brother, Shebna. He probably accompanied Hyr- canus on his return from Babylon to Jerusalem, and became one of the most devoted disciples of the Synhedrists, Shemaya and Abtalion, whose tradi- tional lore he endeavored to transmit literally and faithfully. Hillel was particularly distinguished for his win- ning, dove-like gentleness, his intense love of CH. IV. HILLEL. 97 humanity, which arose from his own humility, and from his deep faith in others, and lastly, for that perfect equanimity proceeding from his profound trust in God, that never wavered in the midst of trouble. In later ages he was revered as the ideal of modesty and gentleness. When he was once asked to express the essence of Judaism in one sentence, he uttered this golden maxim : " Do not unto others what thou wouldst not have done unto thyself. This is the principal commandment : all others are the development of that one." If strife and dissension arose, Hillel was invariably the peacemaker. His beneficence knew no bounds, and he had that rare delicacy of feeling which never humiliates the recipient by the gift, but which rather helps him to maintain his self-respect. His faith in God raised him triumphantly above every fear. All the members of his household were imbued through his example with the same faith ; so much so that once, upon entering the town and hearing a cry of distress, he was able confidently to remark, " That cry cannot have proceeded from my house." Hillel has bequeathed a greater number of maxims to us than any of his predecessors. We read amongst them the following : " If I were not to care for myself (my soul), who would do so for me ? If I care for myself alone, what can I effect ? If not now, when then ?" " Be of the disciples of Aaron, love peace, seek peace, love mankind, thus lead them to the Law." Impressed by the sublime mis- sion of Israel, that of maintaining and teaching the pure belief in one God, he exclaimed at one of the festivals in the Temple : *' If I (Israel) am here, then is everything here ; if I should be wanting, who would be here ?" The doctrines of Judaism were so profoundly revered by him that his indignation was roused whenever they were used as stepping-stones to the schemes of the ambitious. "He who wishes to raise his name, lowers it ; he who does not seek 98 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. the Law, does not deserve to live. He who does not progress in learning, retrogrades ; he who uses the crown of the Law for his own ends, perishes." Hillel became in after years the very ideal of his co-religionists. The impetus given by him to the development of doctrinal Judaism marks an epoch in the history of that faith. He greatly enriched the mass of the traditional lore that he had imbibed from the Synhedrists, Shemaya and Abtalion. But far more important was his logical derivation of the statutes of the Law observed in his time. He traced them back to their first principles, and raised them out of the narrow circle of tradition and mere custom to the heigrht of reason. The traditional law, according to Hillel, carries within itself its justification and binding power, it does not depend on authority alone. Thus, to a certain extent, he paved the way to a reconciliation between Phar- isees and Sadducees by placing before them the principles common to both, from which neither of them could withhold their assent. On the one hand, Hillel agreed with the Sadducaean principle, that a law can only be valid if founded upon scrip- tural authority ; but, on the other hand, he declared that this authority did not merely lie in the dead letter, but was also to be derived from the general spirit of the scriptural writings. After this demon- station by Hillel, no dispute amongst the schools could arise as to the binding power of traditional law. By the introduction of seven rules, or Mid- doth, the oral law could be imbued with the same weight and authority as that actually contained in the Scriptures. Through these seven rules the oral law assumed quite a different aspect ; it lost its apparently arbitrary character ; it became more uni- versal and reasonable in its tendency, and might be looked upon as originating from Holy Writ itself. These explanatory rules were, moreover, intended not only to justify the oral law, but also to lay down CH. IV. FAME OF HILLEL. 99 instructions how to amplify the laws, and how to meet unforeseen cases of difficulty. At first they appear to have been unfavorably received. It is expressly narrated that Hillel introduced them at a council of the Bathyrene Synhedrion, but that assembly may either have misinterpreted them or have disputed their expediency. In the meantime an opportunity presented itself of having recourse to these explanatory rules, for a question was raised, the solution of which deeply excited the whole nation, and to this opportunity Hillel owed the dig- nified position of President of the Synhedrion. The eve of the festival on which the Paschal Lamb was to be sacrificed occurred on the Sabbath, a most unusual event at that time, and the Bathyrene Synhe- drion could not throw any light upon the disputed question, whether it was permitted or not to sacri- fice the Paschal Lamb on the Sabbath Day„ Hillel, whose ability must have attracted the attention of the discerning before, had taken part in the discussion, and had proved that according to the explanatory rules, the Pesach, or Paschal Sacrifice, like every other whole offering, supersedes the Sabbath. The debate became heated, the mass of the people being warmly interested in the celebration of the festival. Expressions of approval and censure for Hillel were freely uttered. Some cried, " We have to look to the Babylonians for the best information"; others ironically asked, " What good can we expect from the Babylonians?" From that day Hillel's name became so popular that the Bathyrene Synhedrists resigned their offices — whether of their own free will, or because they were forced to do so by the people, is not known — and conceded the Presidency to Hillel himself (about 30). Hillel, far from being proud of his exalted position, expressed himself as dissatisfied, and angrily reproved the Synhedrists. " Why is it," he asked, "that I, an insignificant Babylonian, became lOO HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. President of the Synhedrion? Only because you have been too indolent to heed the teachings of Shemaya and Abtalion." Herod does not seem to have made any objection to the choice. One of the statutes which Hillel had introduced was of general interest, and proved that he had true insight into affairs of life. In the Sabbatical year all debts were by law canceled. At the time when the state was a republic based upon moral laws, this was a wise measure for equalizing prop- erty ; but at a later period, when capital became a power in itself, the rich were not willing to relieve their less wealthy neighbors from their difficulties by giving them loans. On this account Hillel, without entirely abrogating the law which already existed, ruled that the creditor should give over the debt in writing to the Court, so that the Court might collect it, and the creditor be relieved from the necessity of violating the law. This timely statute, equally advan- tageous to debtor and creditor, was called by the Greek word Prosbol, because the debt was given over to the Council of the Elders. At Herod's particular desire, the second place of honor, that of Deputy of Hillel, was given to the Essene Menahem, to whom the king showed great partiality. The cause of this attachment was as follows (at least so the tale ran in later days): Menahem, by means of the pr-ophetic power ascribed to the Essenes, had foretold during his childhood that Herod would one day be king in Jerusalem, and that his reign would be a brilliant one, but that he would fail in piety and justice. That which had ap- peared incredible to the youth recurred to the man when he wore the regal crown. But Menahem appears not to have found his office congenial, and soon withdrew in favor of Shammal, whose char- acteristics, opposed In many ways to those of Hillel, In reality supplemented them, Shammal was prob- ably by birth a Palestinean, and therefore much CH. IV. SHAMMAI. lOI interested In all the political and religious contro- versies of his native land. His religious views were strict to a painful extreme. But Shammai was not of a gloomy or misanthropical disposition ; indeed, he encouraged friendliness in demeanor towards every one. This is indicated by the maxim which has come down to us, " Let your work in the Law be your principal occupation ; speak little, but do much, and receive all men with a friendly counte- nance." The two Synhedrists, Hillel and Shammai, founded two separate schools, opposed to each other in many religious, moral, and legal ques- tions, which, with their different tendencies, exerted a powerful influence, during the subsequent unset- tled and warlike times, upon events of historical importance. Herod had no conception of the forces antagonistic to his house that were quietly develop- ing within the seclusion of these schools. With a trembling heart he had presented himself at Rhodes before Octavianus Csesar, who, since the defeat of Antony at Actium, was sole master of the Roman provinces. He, so haughty in his own country, appeared in meek and lowly guise at the footstool of the mighty ruler, yet not without a cer- tain manly resolution. In his interview with Octa- vianus, Herod did not in any way conceal the posi- tion he had held with relation to Antony ; but he took care to dwell upon the fact of his having refrained from aiding Antony after his defeat at Actium, thereby intimating to Octavianus what use he might make of the devotion and zeal which Herod was prepared to transfer from the cause of Antony to that of his conqueror. Octavianus was neither noble enough to despise so venal a man, nor did he feel secure enough to do without him. So he graciously encouraged the pleading Herod, bade him array himself as before in royal robes, and sent him back to his own country laden with 1Q2 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. honors (30). Herod found no difficulty in becom- ing as loyal a partisan of Octavianus as he had been for twelve long years of Antony. During the campaign of the second Caesar against Egypt, he was met at Accoby Herod bearing rich presents, and the Judaean king supplied the Roman army with water and with wine during their march through an arid country. It is possible that Antony may have heard, before he put an end to his life, that Herod's loyalty was not founded on a rock. Herod had also the malicious joy of knowing that his persistent enemy, Cleopatra, who had failed to fascinate the conqueror by her attractions, had nothing left but to seek death. The Alexandrian Judaeans, who had suffered from her hatred, shared Herod's feelings. For, but a short time previous to her death, this terrible woman had longed to assassinate with her own hands the Judaeans who were living in the capital of Egypt, and who were devoted to the cause of Octavianus. The Egyptian Judaeans were rewarded for their devotion by an official recognition of their equality with the rest of the inhabitants ; in fact, Octavianus had such confidence in their loy- alty that he placed the harbors of the Nile and of the sea under the control of the Judaean Alabarchs, who had held that office under former Egyptian monarchs. This was a special mark of favor, for the possession of Egypt, the Roman granary, and particularly of the harbor of Alexandria, was so precious to the first emperor of Rome that no Senator dared approach that country without the imperial permission. When the Alabarch who was then in office died, Octavianus allowed his successor to be chosen by the Alexandrian Judaeans, and granted him all the rights of his predecessors. Whilst he governed the Greek Alexandrians with extreme severity on account of their depravity, their untrust- worthiness and their love of sedition, and kept them strictly under his own rule, he appointed a Judaean CH, IV. OCTAVIANUS AND THE JUD/EANS. IO3 Council to assist the Alabarchs or Ethnarchs. The Judsean community was thus g-overned by one of its own race, who decided all the judicial questions and provided for the carrying out of all imperial com- mands and behests. Octavianus also granted to the numerous Ju- daeans who were settled in Rome, the Libertini, if not extraordinary privileges, at least the right of observing their own religious customs, and thus set a worthy example to his successors. The Judaeans were allowed to build synagogues, where they worshiped according to their rites ; they were also permitted to transmit their yearly contributions to the Temple in Jerusalem, although, in general, it was forbidden to send large sums out of Rome. The Roman Judaeans also received their due portion of the grain that was distributed amongst the popu- lation. If the distribution happened to take place on a Sabbath, their portion was allotted to them on the following day. These were the orders of the emperor. Octavianus made overto Herod the splendid body- guard of Cleopatra, numbering four hundred Gauls, and he placed under his jurisdiction several seaports that had been torn from Judaea, as well as the ter- ritory of Jericho. Samaria, as also Gadara and Hippos in trans-Jordanic territory, were also incor- porated with Judaea. The area of the kingdom was now identical with what it had been before the civil war between the royal brothers and the first inter- vention of the Romans ; but different, indeed, were the circumstances under which she had regained her possessions ! Probably it was due to Herod's bound- less sycophancy to Rome that sacrifices were now regularly offered up for the welfare of the Caesars, Augustus and his consort presenting in return golden vessels for the use of the Temple. Herod was now at the very zenith of his power ; the untoward fortune that he had feared had not I04 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. only been averted, but had actually assisted in exalting him. He was not, however, to enjoy his good fortune ; the terrible consequences of his crimes clung to his footsteps and changed his cup of happiness into one of gall. In the narrow circle of his own home a tragedy was about to be enacted, far more terrible than could have been conceived by the imagination of a poet. Mariamne, who, as well as her mother Alexandra, had been in close confine- ment during the king's absence, had elicited from her gaoler Soem the fact that she would not have been permitted to outlive Herod. Upon the king's return she made no secret of her hatred for him, and when he spoke to her in words of tenderness and affection, she taunted him with the murders of her brother, her grandfather and many others of her relatives. Herod's heart was torn by the love he bore to this beautiful woman and by the wrath he felt at her persistent enmity to his person and his power. Whilst still a prey to these conflicting feel- ings he was only too ready to lend a willing ear to the malicious inventions of his sister Salome, who assured him that his cup-bearer had been bribed by Mariamne to poison him. During the investi- gation that ensued it transpired that Soem had dis- closed his secret instructions to the queen, and this treachery on the part of a confidential servant let loose a ihost of wild passions within Herod's breast. Soem was decapitated on the spot. Whilst still moved by his ungovernable rage, Herod summoned a council, before whom he accused his wife of adul- tery and of an attempt to poison him. The judges passed the sentence of death upon her, and, wishing to curry favor with Herod, ordered the execution to take place forthwith. It was thus that the most beautiful woman in Judaea, the Hasmonaean prin- cess, the pride of her people, was led to the scaffold. She went to her doom with remarkable fortitude, without the faintest tremor or the least display of CH. IV. EXECUTION OF MARIAMNE. IO5 feminine weakness, worthy of her heroic ancestry (29). We may take Mariamne as the symbol of Judaea, delivered up to the axe of the executioner by intrigue and passion. But Mariamne's death did not quench Herod's thirst for revenge ; on the contrary, it brought on still fiercer paroxysms of rage. He could not endure her loss, and became a prey to sickness and insanity. He would call frantically upon her name in a passion of sobs and tears ; and he had her body embalmed in honey, so that he might keep it in his presence. It was whilst traveling in Samaria that he fell so dangerously ill that the doc- tors despaired of his life, and when this intelligence reached his capital, Alexandra proceeded to possess herself of Jerusalem. But the king's vitality returned upon the rumor of this sudden peril to his throne, and Alexandra fell a victim to her sedition. She was the very last who bore the Hasmonsean name, and she had lived long enough to witness the vio- lent and disgraceful deaths of her father-in-law Aristobulus II, her husband Alexander, her brother- in-law Antigonus, her son Aristobulus III, her father Hyrcanus II, and her daughter Mariamne. The remaining two-thirds of the Herodian reign are devoid of any real progress ; the record of that time tells of cringing submission to Augustus and to Rome, of the erection of magnificent edifices, of the love of pomp and display, of deeply-rooted moral corruption, of unsuccessful conspiracies and court intrigues, leading to new crimes and further executions. In order to retain the favor of the all- powerful Augustus, Herod introduced into Jeru- salem the celebration of the Actian games, occur- ring every fifth year, in remembrance of Augustus' victory over his rival-, he also built theaters and arenas, where he organized combats between gladi- ators or wild beasts, thus arousing the displeasure of the national party, who rightly divined that it was I06 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. intended that Judaism soon should be absorbed by a Pagan-Roman worship, and who recognized in the Roman trophies and eagles displayed in the theaters, the introduction of Roman deities. Herod trave his people another cause for umbrage, in the fact that he was not only ornamenting the hated city of Samaria, within a circumference of half a mile, with the most beautiful buildings, but that he also con- templated making that city the capital of his domin- ions, a dignity for which she was singularly adapted by her fortunate position. The newly-built Samaria was renamed Sebaste, just as the citadel Baris, the armory of the Hasmonaeans in old days, on the northwest side of the Temple, had been called Antonia in honor of Antony. In fact, Judaea became crowded with cities and with monuments which bore the names of Herod's own family or those of his Roman protectors. The fortress of Straton on the sea was, by most lavish expenditure, converted into a beautiful city, with an extensive harbor, and received the name of Caesarea, one of the towers on its walls being called Drusus, after the son of Augustus. Herod did not even hesitate to erect a Roman temple on the soil of the Holy Land. Two colossal figures were raised in Caesarea, one of them representing, in gigantic proportions, the figure of Augustus as the Olympian Jupiter, and the other that of the city of Rome as the Argive Juno. At the splendid consecration of Caesarea, the rebuilding of which had occupied twelve years, the inhabitants could have imagined themselves transported into a pagan city. On account of its name, its origin and its importance, the national partyjustly called it Little Rome. In later days it became the seat of the Roman governor, the rival of Jerusalem, and finally her conqueror. Whenever Caesarea rejoiced, Jeru- salem was sure to mourn. The harbor of Caesarea, which grew in time to be a town itself, was called Sebastus. Herod had, without doubt, enhanced the CH. IV. C^SAREA FOUNDED. I07 beauty of Judaea, but, like a doomed victim, she was garlanded for the altar. His love of display found satisfaction in the magnificence of his edifices, but not his love of renown. Despairing of securing the affection of his own people, he resolved to compel the admiration of the stranger. He exhausted his people by taxation, redoubled his extortions, searched for hidden treasures in the ancient royal cemeteries, sold those who had been imprisoned for theft as slaves to neighboring countries, and then lavished all the funds he had gained by these practices upon the adornment of Syrian, Asiatic, and Greek cities. Huge were the sums of money that he withdrew from his own country for such enterprises. Herod may possibly have secured the admiration and affection of the Greeks, the Romans and the Judaeans outside of Palestine ; but the people of Jerusalem felt nothing but aversion for this grasping upstart, who sought to estrange them from the customs of their fathers. In spite of his having shown himself to be their generous benefactor, upon the occasion of a great famine (24), the nation now only beheld in him the murderer of the Hasmonaeans, the usurper of their throne, the destroyer of the noblest citizens, the suppressor of freedom. He had dis- graced the three dignities of Monarch, High Priest, and Synhedrist. The first he had arrogated to himself ; the second, which until his reign had, with very few exceptions, descended by right of inheri- tance from father to son, he had given away, accord- ing to his own pleasure or to attain his own ends ; and the power of the third he had curtailed by allowing it hardly any scope for action. Joshua, of the family of Phabi, had, through Herod's instrumen- tality, succeeded Ananel as High Priest ; but the king having been fascinated by the beauty of another Mariamne, the daughter of an inferior priest, Simon, he dispossessed Joshua of his dignity, and raised Simon to his office, in order that his future wife's rank be not too strikingly below his own. I08 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. This I lii^h Priest Simon was an Alexandrian, the son of Boethus, and it was he who laid the founda- tion-stone of the i^reatness of the house of Boethus, from which several high priests descended. He appears to have been the founder of the sect of the Boethuseans, who followed the teachings of the Sadducees, but who were better able to grasp and apply those teachings than the Sadducees them- selves, thanks to their Alexandrian readiness and sophistry. These despotic acts of Herod v»rere not calculated to make him beloved by his people. He was per- fectly aware of their ill-will towards him, but as he could not crush it, he at least sought to make it harmless. Thus he insisted upon all subjects taking an oath of allegiance, resolving to punish severely those who would refrain from doing so. The Essenes alone, who disapproved of oaths, were exempt ; he had no cause for fear in their peaceful, contem- plative lives ; on the contrary, he warmly approved of such subjects, who would submit without murmur- .ing to any law that he might choose to make. Those amongst the Pharisees who were the followers of the peace-loving Hillel seem to have taken the required oath without hesitation, but the followers of the sterner Shammai stubbornly refused to do so. Six thousand Pharisees in all refused to take the oath of allegiance, and to inflict corporal punishment upon so great a number appeared, even to Herod, a serious matter. So he heavily taxed the refractory, amongst whom was the wife of his brother Pheroras, an ardent devotee, strange to say, of strict Phari- seeism. But, in spite of all these precautionary measures, Herod did not trust his subjects, and employed a number of spies to watch them. He himself would often appear in disguise at their popular assemblies, and woe to the unfortunate individual who, at that moment, might be giving utterance to a complaint CH. IV. REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. lOQ against the existing order of things ; he was doomed to be imprisoned in a fortress, or secretly de- spatched. But popularity is too sweet for the tyrant to forego it, and to Herod it was particularly im- portant, as he wished to appear before the Romans in the character of a prince beloved by his people. This, besides his passion for building, was probably the motive that impelled him to convert the Temple, now five hundred years old, small and of an old fashion, into a magnificent edifice in a new style. The representatives of the nation, when he informed them of his plan, received the news with horror; they feared that Herod intended merely to destroy their old Temple, and that he would endlessly pro- tract the work of the new building, thus robbing them entirely of their sanctuary. But he pacified them by the assurance that the old Temple should remain standing until all the workmen, with their material, were at hand for the construction of the new one. Thousands of carts, laden with quarry stone and marble, now appeared on the scene, and ten thousand skilled workmen were ready to com- mence operations. In the eighteenth year of Herod's reign (20) the building was begun, and in one year and a half (18) the inner part of the Temple was finished. The building of the outer walls, courts and galleries occupied a period of eight years, and long after this time, until just before the destruction, the workmen were still employed upon them. The Herodian Temple was a magnificent pro- duction, the exquisite beauty of which those who witnessed it could not sufficiently admire. It differed from the uncompleted Temple of Zerubbabel in being of vaster dimensions and of richer and more ornate decoration. The whole circumference of the Temple Mount (Har-ha-bayith), which was sur- rounded by a lofty and strong wall, besides the fortress at Antonia, with which it was in communi- cation, exceeded three-quarters of a mile, and the I lO HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. ground rose in terraces. Owincr to this command- ing position the Sanctuary could be seen from afar. The long range of outer wall protected a series of courts and galleries, with their cedar ceilings and mosaic floorings. The first court was assigned as a place of assembly for the people, where the most important questions were discussed. Here the pagan and the unpurified were admitted ; here Greek and Roman inscriptions, in large characters, and placed in prominent positions, caught the eye of him who entered. They ran as follows : " No foreigner is permitted to pass through this grating into the Sanctuary and its surroundings. If discovered there he has brought the punishment of death upon him- self." The second court, which in former days had been protected by a wooden grating, was now shut in by a low wall. The internal arrangements of the Temple were but little changed, and consisted, as in the Temple of Zerubbabel, of three uncovered courts and of the Sanctuary, which was of a size to admit of the golden altar, the candlestick and the shewbread table, and, at the extreme end, of the Holy of Holies. But the outer parts of the Sanc- tuary vastly outshone those of the old Temple. Its walls were of snow-white marble, and as they rose on the highest summit of the Temple Mount, and towered above the outer walls and their fortifica- tions, they presented a beautiful and striking appear- ance from all sides. The large space in front of the Sanctuary was partitioned into various smaller courts for the use of the women, the laymen, the priests, and for all those who were engaged in pre- paring the sacrifices for the altar. The space allotted to the female portion of the worshipers, whose visits to the Temple were now of frequent occur- rence, was entirely shut off from the rest, and three large balconies were reserved for the use of the women, from which they were able to witness ail celebrations of a public character. The gateway CH. IV. HEROD S TEMPLE. Ill leading- to this part of the Temple was closed by a magnificent door, cast in Corinthian brass. th(! gift of a rich and pious Alexandrian, after whom it was named the Gate of Nicanor. Fifteen steps led thence to the laymen's quarters, which were reached by passing through a gateway, called, on account of its commanding position, the High Gate. The outer court was entirely open ; but, on the other hand, the Sanctuary was shut off by a gateway higher and broader than any other, containing double folding doors, thickly covered with a layer of gold. This was the Great Gate or the Gate of the Sanctuary. The high roof of the Sanctuary rose at intervals into sharp gilded points, the object of which was to prevent the birds from building their nests on this consecrated place, but probably quite unintention- ally on the part of the builder, they may also have served as lightning conductors. The splendor of the dedication far exceeded that solemnized in King Solomon's time. Hecatombs upon hecatombs were offered up, and the whole nation was feasted. The celebration fell upon the very anniversary of the day when, twenty years pre- viously, Herod, with blood-stained hands, had made himself master of Jerusalem — a terrible reminis- cence. The hands that built the Temple had already lighted the torch for its destruction. Herod placed it under the protection of Rome. To the horror of the pious Judaeans, a golden eagle, the symbol of Roman might, was hung over the principal entrance. Herod, moreover, constructed a subterranean pas- sage, leading from the fortress of Antonia to the east gate of the Temple, in order to control the egresses of the Sanctuary. His soul was filled with distrust of his people. Towards the close of his reign the aged and sin- laden monarch was seized with a terrible ma/ady. This threw him into a condition of such hopeless misery that one may say that all human feeling 112 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. gave place to the fury of the wild beast. The corpses of his innocent victims rose up before his excited imagination, and made his Hfe one long torment. Vainly he sought for one loving heart, one faithful soul, who would comfort and guide him. But he believed that his own flesh and blood — his sister and brother, Salome and Pheroras, even his own children — were his enemies, and were conspir- ing against his peace and his life. This terrible state of mind made him more dangerous than ever to those who ventured within his presence. The chief cause of his frenzy was the death of his be- loved Mariamne. Besides two daughters, she had left him two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, who, as they grew to man's estate, took the death of their unfortunate mother deeply to heart, and could not conceal the aversion they felt for their father. As these princes were of Hasmonaean descent, Herod had decided upon making them his successors. He had sent them as youths to Rome, in order that they might gain the favor of Augustus, and be educated according to Roman fashion. He married the eldest, Alexander, to Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, King of Cappadocia, and the younger, Aristobulus, to Salome's daughter, Berenice. He thought that by these means he could secure peace amongst the members of his own family. But his wishes were defeated by the hatred that the revenge- ful Salome and her brother Pheroras bore to the descendants of the Hasmonaean Mariamne. Herod was induced by his sister to take to his heart and to adopt as a royal prince the son of his first wife, Doris, whom together with her child he had re- pudiated upon his marriage with Mariamne. Antipater, the son of Doris, had inherited all the malice, craft and cruelty of the Idumaeans, and he spared neither his father nor his brothers. The three, Salome, Pheroras, and Antipater, although they hated one another mortally, were united ip CH. IV. DISSENSIONS IN HEROD S FAMILY. II3 hatred against the sons of Mariamne. The more these princes were indulged by their father, and the more they were beloved by the people as descend- ants from the Hasmonaeans on their mother's side, the more did their bitter foes fear and detest them. Antipater accused Alexander and Aristobulus of wishing to avenge the death of their mother upon the person of their father. Imprudent expressions, hastily uttered in moments of irritation, may have given some show of reason to these accusations. Herod's suspicions dwelt eagerly upon this calumny. He began to hate his sons, and, as a mark of dis- pleasure towards them, led Antipater to believe that he should share in their rights of succession. This determination of the king served to embitter the Hasmonaean princes still more, and drove them to the most unwise outbursts of ang-er as^ainst their father. Antipater succeeded at the same time in laying proofs of an attempted conspiracy of the two brothers against Herod before him. Their friends and their servants were, by the king's commands, put to the torture, and upon the strength of their confession, wrung from them under agony, Alexan- der and Aristobulus were condemned to death by a council numbering one hundred and fifty of Herod's friends. Herod himself hastened the execution, and ordered the two princes to be torn from Jerusalem and hurried to Samaria, and there, where thirty years previously their unnatural father had cele- brated his marriage with their mother, her two sons were mercilessly beheaded. However, the conspiracies against Herod's life did not cease with their death, but, on the contrary, acquired fresh vigor. Antipater, not feeling at all sure of his succession so long as his father was alive, actually conspired with Pheroras against the life of that father and benefactor. But his fiendish dcsio^n came to light, and it was discovered that Antipater had undoubtedly intended poisoning his father. 114 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. This disclosure was a terrible blow for Herod. The turmoil of his outraged feelings cannot be described, and yet he had to control himself, and even to pretend great affection for Antipater, in order to induce that prince to leave Rome and return to Jerusalem. Upon Antipater's arrival, his father loaded him with reproaches, and accused him before a tribunal, which was under the presidency of the Roman governor Ouintilius Varus, of fratri- cide and attempted parricide. Vainly did the prince plead innocence ; Herod's friend, Nicolaus of Da- mascus, appeared as his merciless accuser. His death sentence was passed, and Herod begged of Augustus to ratify it. Such constant and frequent alarms brought Herod, who had nearly reached his seventieth year, to his death-bed. All his hopes were frustrated ; the result of so much labor, of so much guilt, of so much bloodshed, had become hateful to him. In which of his surviving sons could he have confidence ? For the third time he altered the succession, and resolved that the throne should belong to his youngest son, Antipas I. His miserable state of mind, which might have made him gender and more merciful, only led him into still greater cruelty. An unimportant rising on the part of some hot-headed youths called forth from the aged monarch an act of retaliation as heartless and as severe as in the days when his heart beat high with young and ambitious hopes. The Pharisees were no friends of his, especially those who were the disciples of Shammai. He therefore kept a suspicious eye upon the members of the Pharisaic schools, and the Pharisees, on their side, continued to incite the youths of their fol- lowing against their monarch, whom they termed the Idumaean and the Roman. This they were able to do without incurring any danger to them- selves, for they clothed their words in a metaphorical CH. IV. HEROD S CRUELTY. II5 garb, applying the denunciations of the Hebrew prophets of old to the Idumcean nation, to express what they felt for Herod and his family. Amongst the Pharisees who were most bitterly opposed to Herod and the Romans, Judah ben Zippori and Matthias ben Margalot were distin- guished for their ardor and recklessness, and were endeared to their people by these very character- istics. Upon hearing of Herod's mortal illness, they incited some of their young disciples to put an end to the desecration of the Temple, by hurling the Roman eagle from the gateway. The rumors of Herod's death, that were credited in Jerusalem, favored this bold undertaking. A number of youths armed with axes rushed to the Temple Gate, scaled it by means of a rope-ladder, and cut down the eagle. At the news of this rebellious action, the captain of the Herodian guard sent his troops to the spot, and they succeeded in capturing the two ring- leaders and forty of their followers. They were brought into the king's presence, and the sight of these new victims revived his exhausted vitality. At their trial, which was conducted in Ihis pres- ence, he was forced to hear much that proved how incapable he had been in breaking the stubborn will of his people. The prisoners fearlessly con- fessed what they had done, boasting proudly of their performance, and replying to the question as to who had incited them to such an action, " The Law." They were all burnt alive as "desecrators of the Temple." But Herod was to be punished more effectually by eternal justice than would have been possible had he been arraigned before the severest earthly tribunal. Even the pleasure that was granted him before he entirely succumbed to his loathsome malady, the delight of being able to order the exe- cution of his son, was soon followed by a paroxysm of pain in which he nearly caused his own destruc- Il6 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IV. tion. His relative Achiab tore the knife from his hand, but the cry of horror that arose from his palace in Jericho at this suicidal attempt, came to the ear of Antipater, a prisoner in the same palace. He began to hope that his life might yet be spared, and he besought his gaoler to release him. But the gaoler, who feared to risk his own life, hurried into the king's apartments, to see if the cruel monarch still lived. When Herod heard that Antipater yet hoped to outlive him, he ordered his instant assassination, and his orders were forth- with obeyed. Although Antipater deserved his death tenfold, yet there was a general feeling of horror at the idea of a father who could sentence his three sons to death. Even Augustus, who did not show any tenderly paternal feelings to his daughter Julia, could not help exclaiming at the news of Antipater's execution, that "he would rather be Herod's swine than his son." A legend of later date tells how Herod was not satisfied with shedding the blood of his own children, but how, in a passion, he ordered all children under two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding country to be massacred, because he had heard that the Messiah of the House of David had been born in that place ! But Herod, criminal as he was, was innocent of this crime. Herod's last thoughts dwelt, however, upon bloodshed. He insisted upon the most respected men of Judaea being brought to Jericho, and im- prisoned in the great public arena, where they were closely guarded ; he then left orders with his sister Salome and her husband that directly after his death had taken place they should be all mas- sacred by his body-guard, so that the entire nation might be mourning their loved ones, and no one would have the heart to rejoice over his demise. Murder filled his thoughts from the first moment of his public life until he drew his last breath. He CH. IV. DEATH OF HEROD. II/ died five days after the execution of Antipater, in the sixty-ninth year of his life and the thirty-seventh of his reign, in the spring of the year 4 b. c. His flatterers called him " Herod the Great," but the nation only knew him as " the Hasmonsean slave." Whilst his body was being taken in all pomp to its resting-place in Herodium, under the escort of the Thracian, German and Gallic body-guard, the nation joyfully celebrated the day as a semi-festival. CHAPTER V. THE HERODIANS. The Family of Herod — Partition of the Kingdom of Judaea — Revolt against Archelaus— Sabinus and Varus — The Adventurer-Chief, Judas the GaHlcean — Confirmation of Herod's Will — Archelaus as Ruler — His brief Reign and his Banishment — Judaea becomes a Roman Province — The Revolt against the Census — The Schools of Hillel and Shammai — Judas Founder of the Party of Zealots— Onerous Taxation— Fresh Hostility of the Samaritans — Expulsion of the Judasans from Rome by Tiberius — Pontius Pilate. 3 B. c. E— 37 c. E. However unfortunate the reign of Herod may have been, it yet contrasted favorably with that which followed. Herod's rule was at all events dis- tinguished by external splendor, and by a certain amount of animation in the direction of public affairs. The boundaries of Judaea now extended far beyond the limits assigned to them in the most prosperous days of the Hasmonaeans. Those tracts of land beyond the Jordan and the Hermon, which Aristobulus I and Alexander I had only partially conquered after years of useless fighting, fell into the possession of Herod merely by the stroke of a pen; but the new territories were less welcome, perhaps, on that account than if they had been won with toil and difficulty. The towns of Judaea had been restored with great magnificence, they were adorned with beautiful specimens of Greek sculpture and architecture ; but the monuments which were erected perpetuated the fame of Roman dignitaries and the Herodian family, and not the greatness of the nation. The seaports, and especially the port of Caesarea, were crowded with shipping, and trade was consequently encouraged, but the imports which naturally increased did not help to enrich ii8 CH. V. HEROD S WILL. II9 the nation. The Temple was resplendent in its renovated glory, and outwardly recalled the days of Solomon, but the priests were forced to offer sacrifices for the welfare of those whom they hated in their hearts. The country even enjoyed a cer- tain amount of independence, for the Roman fetters were not visible at a superficial glance. All this outward show — because it was only outward show — disappeared with the death of the one man who knew how to make use of it. As soon as death had torn the reins from Herod's hands, public affairs fell into an unsettled and disjointed state, which was the beginning of more lasting misfortunes. The edifice, superficially constructed, soon gave way, burying among its ruins everything that remained in Judaea of freedom and national existence. Herod had left several daughters and six sons. Some of them he favored in his will, others he slighted. The publication of this will (the con- tents of which were known to Ptolemy, the brother of the celebrated historian, Nicolaus of Damascus) proved how little he cared for the interests of Judaea, and how constantly he was actuated by the most selfish motives. Instead of keeping the unity of the country intact, he dismembered it, so as to subdivide it between three of his sons. The other three were not mentioned ; these were — Herod, his son by the second Mariamne ; another Herod, by Cleopatra of Jerusalem ; and Phasael, by his wife Pallas. He bequeathed to his son Arche- laus (whose mother was Malthace the Samaritan) the countries of Judaea and Samaria, with the title of sovereign. Herod Antipas (also the son of Mal- thace) became the possessor of the lands of Galilee andPeraea ; Philip.thesonof Cleopatra of Jerusalem, another tetrarchy — Gaulanitis, Batansea, Trachoni- tis, and the country called Panias, which contained the source of the Jordan. He bequeathed to his sister Salome, as a reward for her faithfulness, the I 20 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. revenues of the towns of Jamnia, Azotus, and Pha- saelis (to the north of Jericho). However, these last bequests were only expressed in the form of wishes, for he left to the emperor Augustus the right of deciding whether they should be put into execution, or whether the land should be otherwise divided, and another successor appointed to the throne. The sons, who had received but scanty proofs of affection from their father during his lifetime, were not united by any ties of brotherly love, and each envied the share which had fallen to his brother. Antipas grudged the large territories and the regal title of Archelaus, because in an earlier will he had been nominated as successor to the throne. Sa- lome, in spite of her large possessions, was equally embittered against Archelaus, and did all in her power to dispute the succession. The discord which divided the house of Herod was handed down to their children and children's children. As the fulfilment of Herod's bequests depended on a higher authority, all the disputants tried to ingra- tiate themselves with the people, who, they hoped, would intercede in their favor with Augustus. Sa- lome and her husband actually countermanded an order given by Herod for the execution of the im- prisoned nobles, and persuaded the officers of the Herodian body-guard that Herod himself had dis- approved of an execution on so large a scale. Archelaus, who had still more causes for currying favor with the people, appeared in the Court of the Temple after the period of mourning had expired, and addressing the multitude from a throne erected for the occasion, promised to abolish all the unjust laws sanctioned in his father's reign, and to resettle public affairs, so as to promote general peace and well-being. Emboldened by so much condescen- sion, the people would not rest contented with royal promises ; they insisted upon stating their griev- ances in a definite form, and demanded speedy and CH. V. ARCHELAUS. 121 certain redress. There were five points on which the people were particularly resolute. They de- sired that the oppressive yearly taxes should be reduced, whilst the duties upon public sales and purchases should be completely taken off; that the prisoners who had languished for years in dungeons should be liberated ; that the counselors who had voted the death-sentence when the Roman eagle had been destroyed be punished ; and finally that the unpopular High Priest, Joaser, should be de- posed, and one more worthy of his important office be named in his stead. All this was really nothing short of demanding both a new and a popular form of government and a public condemnation of the Herodian tyranny. However little Archelaus cared at heart for the reputation of his father, he could not possibly agree to all these requests. Nevertheless, he assented to everything, but he could not promise that their wishes should be accomplished until Herod's will had received the imperial sanction. But the crowds of people, consisting of several thousands, who had congregated from every part of Judaea to celebrate the Feast of Passover, incited by the Pharisees, who worked upon their feelings by picturing to them the martyrdom of Judas and Matthias, the destroyers of the eagle, would not be put off, and came forward full of anger and defiance. What their intentions may have been is not known. Archelaus, who feared a revolt, sent a troop of soldiers to quell any disturbance, but they were assailed with stones and forced to take to flight. In the meantime midday approached, and the people allowed their anger to cool. They were occupied with the rites of the fes- tivals, and made no preparations either for defense or for commencing hostilities. Archelaus took ad- vantage of their inactivity ; he commanded all the infantry in Jerusalem to fall upon the sacrificing multitude, and to hew them down ; the cavalry were 122 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. to remain in the open plains to arrest the fugitives. Three thousand were killed on that day on the Mount of the Temple and in the surrounding coun- try ; those that escaped the sword of the enemy destroyed themselves. Heralds thereupon pro- claimed to the whole town that Archelaus forbade the celebration of the Passover for that year, and no one was allowed to approach the Temple. This was the inauguration of the reign of Archelaus. Although his relatives would probably not have acted with more humanity than he did, they cried out against his cruelty, and made use of it as a weapon with which to serve their own purposes when in the presence of Augustus. The whole house of Herod traveled to Rome to lay the land of Judaea at the feet of the emperor, and to petition, according to their respective interests, for the alter- ation or the confirmation of the will. During their absence unexpected events took place, and the prize for which they were all contend- ing very nearly escaped their possession altogether. Judsea became a huge battlefield, the arena of furi- ous encounters. Men threw themselves into the affray, assuming the titles of kings or leaders of the people. The blood of the slain warriors, the groans of unarmed, wounded citizens, the smoke issuing from burning cities, filled every heart with dismay and with horrible forebodings of the downfall of Judaea. The tragical events which took place dur- ing the first year after the death of Herod are described in the Chronicle as the " War Period of V^arus," the Governor of Syria. At the desire of Archelaus, Ouintilius Varus had remained in Jerusalem after the departure of the Herodian family, so as to crush any attempt at revolt which might occur during the absence of the princes. The task was an easy one, for the patriots who were hostile to the Herodians had no decided plan of action, were insufficiently armed, and allowed them- CH. V. QUINTILIUS VARUS. I23 selves to be led away by their fierce hatred into unwise and useless demonstrations. Varus, seeing no further necessity for remaining in the Judaean capital, returned to Antioch, but he left a consider- able number of troops to be in readiness in case of any signs of hostility. As soon as the governor Varus had left Jerusalem another cause of annoyance was given to the people by the arrival of Sabinus, the treasurer of Augustus. He had been sent to claim the treasures of Herod, and probably also all those belonging to the Temple, as if the emperor had been the acknowledged heir to Herod's possessions. Sabinus must have had some malevolent intention, for he hastened his journey to Jerusalem, notwithstanding that he had promised Varus to remain at Caesarea until the Hero- dian disputes were settled. He took advantage of the reluctance with which the custodians complied with his demands to create a disturbance among the people, and thus obtain a pretext for entering the city. The Feast of Pentecost was drawing near, and, as usual, multitudes of people congregated from all parts of the country at Jerusalem. This time, the greater part of them were animated by hostile feel- ings against the Romans and the Herodians. The strife was not delayed. The people soon chose their leaders, and succeeded in occupying the Mount of the Temple and the Hippodrome, whence they defied the Romans, who had taken up their quarters in the palace of Herod. Sabinus, think- ing himself lost, encouraged the Romans to besiege the Temple, and sent messages to Varus for more reinforcements. The Judaeans, well protected be- hind the Temple walls, hurled their weapons and their huge stones down upon the Romans. Victory would have been theirs had not the enemy, with burning materials, set fire to the colonnade. The flames spread so rapidly that escape was impos- 124 HISTORY OV THE JEWS. CH. V. sible. Of the unfortunate combatants, some were victims of the fire, others fell before the swords of the Romans, and many of them killed themselves in reckless despair. As soon as the Temple was left unprotected, the Romans, tempted by the treasures which they knew it contained, rushed into the courts. Sabinus alone is said to have approi)riated four hundred talents from the treasures of the Temple. The plunder of these treasures, the desecration of the Holy of Holies, and the destruction of the halls of the Temple, barely ten years after the sacred edifice had been completed, roused all the indignation and, and at the same time, all the valor of the Judseans. Even a great part of the Herodian troops went over to the malcontents, and assisted them against the Romans. Thus strengthened, they besieged the palace of Herod, laid mines under the towers, and threatened the Romans with destruction if they did not retire immediately. Sabinus, anxiously awaiting the expected reinforcements, but vacillating between fear of the besiegers and a longing to obtain the mastery over them, remained for the time in the citadel of the palace. Thus all the horrors of anarchy were let loose in Judaea. Had the insurgents found skilful and trust- worthy leaders their united efforts might have broug-ht about such momentous events that the Herodian dispute would have come to a most un- expected termination. But there was no organiza- tion to give shape and purpose to all this patriotic fervor. It was nurtured by selfish adventurers, and was therefore hurtful to the country itself rather than dangerous to the enemy. Two thousand soldiers, probably Iduma^ans, whom Herod had dismissed shortly before his death, disturbed the regions of the south. A certain Simon, a slave of Herod, distin- guished by great beauty and an imposing presence, collected a troop of malcontents, who hailed him as CH. V, UNSETTLED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. I 25 their king, and, at his command, burned to the ground many royal castles in the country, including the royal palace at Jericho. The palace of Bethar- amata was destroyed by a band of men, the name of whose leader is unknown. A third adventurer was a shepherd named Athronges, a giant in strength and stature, who was accompanied into the field of battle by four brothers, all of the same colossal build. After assuming the royal title, he fell upon the Romans, cut off their retreat, and fought valiantly till, after a long and fierce struggle, he was forced to yield. There was but one leader of all these free troopers who had a decided aim in view, and who might have proved a formidable foe, both to Romans and Herodians, had fortune favored him, or his countrymen given him their cordial help. This was Judas, known by the name of " the Galilean," a native of Gamala in Gaulanitis, and a son of Ezekias, fighting against whom Herod had won his first laurels. Judas had been imbued, from his birth, with a passionate love for his countr}s and as passionate a hatred towards the Romans. He became the leader of a faction which gradually came to rule the country, and eventually gave the Romans more difficulties to con- tend with than even the Gauls and the Germans. Judas was at this period in the prime of life. His intense zeal proved contagious, and he gained a con- siderable number of partisans among the powerful Galileans. With their assistance he took possession of the arsenal in Sepphoris, the Galilean capital. He then armed his followers, gave them stipends from the money found in the arsenal, and soon became the terror of the Romans and of all those who were favorably disposed towards them. Events in the region bordering on Syria were even more pressing than Sabinus in urging the gov- ernor to suppress the revolt, and to hasten to the rescue of the Roman troops. The terror of Varus himself was so great that he not only ordered all the 126 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. Roman troops that were at his disposal (over twenty thousand men) to march against the insurgents, but summoned the armies under the command of the neighboring princes. Aretas, the king of the Na- bathaeans, placed his troops at the command of the Roman general, and as they formed the vanguard of the Roman army, they burnt and plundered all the villages through which they passed. Varus sent one division of his troops to Galilee to commence operations against Judas. There seems to have been a severe struggle at the town of Sepphoris ; ultimately Varus set fire to it and sold the in- habitants as slaves, but Judas escaped. The town of Emmaus, where Athronges had established him- self, shared the same fate, though the inhabitants had taken to flight. On his arrival at Jerusalem, Varus found that his task had become a light one, for the besiegers were alarmed at the report of the approach of his army, and had abandoned their struggle against Sabinus. Notwithstanding this, two thousand prisoners were crucified at the com- mand of Varus. Such was the end of a revolt which had been fanned into existence by a natural feeling of anger and indignation, but had failed through the absence of wise and judicious guidance. It had only been successful in bringing the nation into a state of more humiliating dependence upon Rome, for a legion was retained to keep guard over the rebellious citi- zens of Jerusalem. Durinof all this time the Herodians were still dis- cussing their claims to the sovereignty of Judaea before the throne of Augustus, and their servile be- havior and mutual accusations only convinced the Emperor how unworthy one and all were of holding the reins of government. Before Augustus could come to any decision, a Judaean embassy arrived, consisting of fifty men of position and importance, whose mission had been approved by Varus. They CH. V. AUGUSTUS AND THE JUD^ANS. I27 brought accusations against the Herodian gov- ernment, and implored the Emperor to proclaim Judsea a Roman province in conjunction with Syria, but to grant the nation full liberty to conduct her own internal affairs. As the petition had the sup- port of eight thousand Roman-Judaeans, the Em- peror was obliged to listen to it. However, after having heard both the demands of the embassy and the arguments of the pretenders to the throne, he decided upon confirming Herod's will, with this exception, that he did not grant the sovereignty immediately to Archelaus, but only recognized him as ruler (Ethnarch), promising him, however, that if he proved worthy of the royal title it should be granted to him eventually. Augustus could not entirely disregard the last wishes of a prince who had been his friend, and who had served the Ro- mans with a devotion only equaled by the zeal with which he furthered his own egotistical ends. The imperial treasury suffered no diminution whether Judaea was called an ethnarchy or a province dependent upon Rome. The reign of Archelaus was short and unevent- ful (4 B.C.— 6 c. E,). Herod's children had inherited little of their father's disposition, excepting his fancy for building and his cringing policy towards Rome. In other respects they were insignificant, and there was something small and contemptible even in their tyranny. At first Archelaus (who appears also under the name of Herod) attempted to conciliate the discontented members of the community, whose indignation he had aroused at the assembly in the courts of the Temple. He gave way to the general desire to depose the unpopular High Priest Joasar, and appointed in his stead the latter's brother, Eleazer, who was soon succeeded by Joshua of the family of Sie or Seth. But he in turn was re- placed by Joasar, and thus three High Priests fol- lowed one another in the short space of nine years. 128 HISTORY OF TlIK JEWS. CH. V. The only war carried on by Archelaus was fought against Athrongcs, who had been able to hold his own for some time after the death of his four brothers ; and such was the incapacity of Archelaus that he was long unable to subdue an adventurer, whose powers were almost exhausted, but who was still able to dictate the conditions of his own sur- render. Archelaus offended the feelings of the pious Judseans by his marriage with his sister-in-law Glaphyra, the widow of Alexander, who had been executed. This daughter of the king of Cappa- docia had had two sons ; one of these, Tigranes, and his nephew of the same name, became, in later years, kings respectively of Greater and Lesser Armenia. Indifferent to the melancholy fate of her husband, she married, after his death, Juba, the king of Numidia ; but was soon divorced from him, and contracted an alliance with Archelaus, the brother of her first husband, an alliance forbidden by Judsean laws. Little is known of the life of Ar- chelaus ; his acts of tyranny called forth the oppro- brium of the Judaeans and the Samaritans. He was taken before Augustus to answer for his misdeeds, but being unable to defend himself, he was dethroned and sent into exile among the Allo- brogian races (6 c. e.). The principalities belong- ing to Herod Antipas and to Philip remained in their former condition, but the towns which had been in the possession of Salome came also under the Imperial sway, for Salome had bequeathed them at her death to the Empress Livia. Thus after enjoying a hundred and fifty years of real or apparent independence, Judcea became entirely subjugated to Roman authority, and was united with the province of Syria. Matters remained in this con- dition, with the exception of a short interval, till the final revolt. The Imperial representative in Judaea, who henceforth received the title of Procurator, had CH. V. JUD.^A A ROMAN PROVINCE. I 29 his seat of government in the seaport Caesarea, which from that time became the hated rival of Jerusalem. The duties of the Procurator consisted in maintain- ing order in the country, and in enforcing the punc- tual payment of all taxes. He had even the power of pronouncing the death sentence, and also of supervising the Synhedrion's administration of the criminal law. The authority of the Synhedrion became more and more limited, and the political importance of that assembly, which had considerably diminished during the reign of Herod, dwindled entirely away. The Romans interfered in all the functions of the Synhedrion, and also in the installations of the High Priests. The Procurator named and de- posed the High Priests according to their friendly or unfavorable inclinations towards Rome ; he took charge of the sacerdotal ornaments, and only gave them up on the chief festivals. The vestments of the High Priests were kept under lock and key in the fortress of Antonia ; they were removed in time for the festival by the officials of the Temple, and returned to their place of preservation in the pres- ence of a Roman overseer. A light was burning constantly before the case containing the priestly vestments. The first Procurator whom Augustus sent to Judaea was the captain of the horse, Coponius. The Syrian Governor, Oulrinlus, came at the same time (6-7) to lay claim to the confiscated property of Archelaus. He was also instructed to take a census of the population, and to estimate the property of the country for the purpose of the new method of taxation. A tax was to be levied upon every indl- vidual, inclusive of women and slaves; however, female children under twelve and male children under fourteen years of age and very old people were to be exempt. Furthermore, an income tax was levied, and those who kept cattle were called 130 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. Upon to give up a part of their herds. The taxes on the land were to be paid out of the produce of the harvest. This method of levying" imposts roused the indig- nation of all classes alike. Every one resented such interference in private as well as political affairs, and felt as if the land and property, and the very person of each individual were in the hands of the emperor, and made use of according to his pleasure. It is not surprising that, in their ignor- ance of the Roman constitution, the people should have looked upon the census as the herald of slavery, and anticipated with terror a repetition of the Baby- lonian captivity. Their dread of the census, exag- gerated perhaps, but not wholly unjustifiable, caused greater agitation than any previous statute, and aroused new disputes, in which the old differences between Pharisee and Sadducee were entirely for- gotten. New points of discussion were raised. The question of the supremacy of the oral law disap- peared before the burning question of the day — whether the people should become slaves to the Romans, or whether they should offer stubborn and energetic resistance. This question brought dis- sension into the camp of the Pharisees. The new faction to which this discussion on the census had given rise sprang from the very center of the Synhedrion, and was connected with the names of Hillel, Shammai, and Judas of Galilee. Hillel and Shammai did not live to see the catastrophe which made Judaea a province of Rome. Hillel's death caused wide-spread mourning, and the oration at his grave began with the sad cry : " O pious, O gentle, O worthy follower of Ezra." The people, in their great affection for him, continued to distinguish his descendants with their favor, and the presidency of the Synhedrion became hereditary in his family for more than four centuries. Of Hillel's son and successor, Simon I, nothing but his name has CH. V. THE SCHOOL OF HH.LEL. I3I been preserved. All the greatness which encircled Hillel's name was bequeathed to the school which he formed, and which inherited and faithfully pre- served the spirit of its founder. The disciples of this school evinced in all their public dealings the peacefulness and gentleness, the conciliatory spirit which had distinguished their great master. They were guided and supported by these characteristic qualities during the political storms which long convulsed their unhappy country. There were about eighty members of this school who were most devotedly attached to Hillel, and were called the elders of the school. The names of only two of these have been recorded : Jonathan, the son of Uziel, and Jochanan ben Zaccai. The former is reputed, but without actual proof, to have been the author of a Chaldaic translation of the Prophets. He was disinherited by his father in favor of Shammai, probably from displeasure at his having joined the school of Hillel. In the same way as the school of Hillel endeav- ored to preserve the characteristic gentleness of their master, the followers of Shammai emulated and even exceeded the stern severity of the founder of their school. It seemed impossible to the school of Shammai to be sufficiently stringent in religious prohibitions ; the decisions which they arrived at, in their interpretations of the law, were so gen- erally burdensome that those which were milder in character were treasured up as rare exceptions. Thus, according to their opinion, no work should be attempted which, if commenced before the Sab- bath, would, even without the aid of a Jud£ean, be completed on the Sabbath. It was prohibited on the Sabbath day to give sums of money for charitable purposes, to make arrangements for marriage contracts, to instruct children, to visit the sick, or even to bring comfort to the sorrowing. In their regulations concerning the purity of the Levltes 132 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. in their person and apparel, their exaggerations brought them very near the excesses of the Essenes. They were equally severe concerning matrimonial laws, and only allowed divorce to be granted in the case of the unchastity of the wife. In the school of Shammai, the Pharisaic principles were carried to the very extreme. It was only due to the yielding disposition of the followers of Hillel that peace was not disturbed, and that a friendly relationship existed between two schools of such opposite views and characters. The school of Shammai were not only severe in their explanations of the laws, but entertained very stern and rigid opinions on nearly all subjects ; they were particu- larly harsh and repellant towards proselytes to Judaism. Any heathen who came to the school of Shammai, requesting to be received into the com- munity might expect but a ver)' cold and repellant reception. The school of Shammai cared not for proselytes. How dangerous to Judaism lukewarm proselytes may be, they had too often seen in the case of the converted Herodians. But in spite of their own rigid obedience to the Law, they did not exact the same obedience from the Judsean troops who were fighting against the national enemy. Originally there had been some hesitation about making war on the Sabbath, but now the school of Shammai were unreservedly in favor thereof; the siege of a hostile city, commenced before the Sab- bath, was not to be raised, in spite of the transgress- ing of the Sabbath law, until the fortress surrendered. These ordinances were instituted by Shammai him- self, in whom hatred of the heathen was even greater than religious devotion. The school of Shammai had a large number of adherents in the Synhedrion, as well as among the people. Their religious austerity, and their hatred of the heathens, found more sympathizers than the moderation and peacefulness of the followers of Hillel. They con- CH. V. THE SCHOOL OF SHAMMAI. I33 sequently formed the majority, and were able to carr}^ all their resolutions. Among the followers of Shammai, several names have been preserved — Baba ben Buta, Dostai from Itome, and Zadok. It is possible that this Zadok may be the same of whom it is related that, excited by a fanatical hatred of the Romans, he joined with Judas the Galilean, and placed himself at the head of a relig-- ious republican faction who called themselves the Zealots (Kannaim). The members of this faction were also called the Galileans. The watchword which Judas gave the party of the Zealots, and which was eagerly endorsed by Zadok, was that obedience to the Roman law was disregard of the Divine law, for God alone was ruler, and could alone demand obedience ; that it became, therefore, a clear and solemn duty to strain every nerve, and sacrifice property, and life, and family in this strug- gle against the usurper, who exacted submission due to God alone. And they set up as an exem- plar Phineas, the slayer of the chief Zimri, the only one who, in the presence of a neglectful tribe and a slothful nation, had served his God with zeal. Furthermore, Judas proclaimed that the Judaean state must be a republic, recognizing God alone as sovereign and His laws as supreme. This teaching found favor all the more readily as the Roman yoke was becoming more and more intol- erable. The great purpose they had in view — the recovery of their freedom — electrified young and old, and the Zealots, a faction which at first only comprised followers of Shammai, soon included a great number of Judeeans, who chafed indignantly under the weight of the Roman fetters. As soon as the law was passed that every one should give an accurate description of his family, his lands and his property, Zadok and Judas gave the signal for energetic resistance. In some places a conflict seems to have ensued. The more 134 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. moderate, however, including- the High Priest Joasar, tried to pacify the malcontents by explain- ing that the census would not be the precursor of slavery or of the confiscation of property, but was simply necessary in order to control the arrange- ments for taxation. It was useless, and the cen- sus was regarded with such suspicion and dislike that every fine w^as now called census (Kenas). Even the moderate party, although they endeav- ored to stem the agitation, were indignant at the encroachments made upon their liberties. The school of Hillel considered the taxation so unjusti- fiable that, conscientious as they were, they acceded to all measures by which it might be escaped. Such was the general abhorrence for this system of taxation, that all those who were officially occu- pied in carrying it out, whether as tax-collector (Moches) or as treasurer (Gabbai), were looked upon as dishonorable men ; they were not tolerated in the higher ranks of the community, and their tes- timony as witnesses was discredited. Only mer- cenary motives and utter indifference to public opinion could induce any one to undertake the des- pised office. The designations of tax-gatherer and overseer became henceforth terms of opprobrium. Another change also originated with the Ro- man occupation of Judaea. All public documents, deeds of divorce, etc., were now to be dated according to the year of the reign of the Roman Emperor, and not, as formerly, that of the Judaean rulers. The Zealots were much annoyed at this innovation, and they accused the more moderate Pharisees, who had yielded to it, of indifference in matters of religion. " How could such an ignominy be perpetrated as to wTite the words, ' according to the laws of Moses and Israel ' " (the usual formula in the separation deeds) " next to the name of the heathen ruler, and thus permit the holy name of the greatest prophet to be placed by the side of the CH. V. COPONIUS. 135 name of the heathen ruler." In one matter Quir- inius was forced to yield to the wishes of the people. He deposed the unpopular High Priest Joasar, and named in his stead Anan of the family of Seth, whose four sons also became high priests. Under Coponius, who entered upon his office of Procurator when Quirinius left, the old enmity between the Judaeans and Samaritans revived. Several days before the Feast of Passover, the doors of the Temple were thrown open at mid- night, on account of the great number of offerings which took place during that time. A few Samaritans stole into the first outer court, and threw some human bones in among the pillars, with the object of pollut- ing the Temple. Henceforth the hatred between these two races became fiercer than ever, and the guards of the Temple, who were under the charge of the Levites, were strengthened, so as to prevent the recurrence of such a desecration. Not long after these events Coponius was recalled. He was fol- lowed by Marcus Ambivius, who in a short time was also recalled, and was succeeded by Annius Rufus. Thus there were three overseers in the short space of seven years (7-14), a disastrous circumstance, as each one was intent upon draining, as far as possible, all the wealth from the nation. The death of Augustus brought little change to Judaea ; the latter simply became, with other prov- inces, the possession of Tiberius. Outwardly, these provinces may not have suffered under the new em- peror's reign, for he was just to the people, though antagonistic to the aristocracy, which he endeavored to suppress. He listened to the complaints of the Judaeans, and lightened the burdens of their almost unendurable taxation. He appointed as procurator Valerius Gratus, who occupied this post for eleven years (15-26) In reality, however, the antipathy of Tiberius to the Judaeans was even greater than that of his predecessor and adopted father ; it would 136 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. seem as if the representative of imperialism in Rome had a foreboding of the mortal blow which Rome was destined to receive from Judaism. This antipathy had probably been stimulated by the fact that the Romans, and particularly the Roman women, had a leaning towards Judaism. The enthu- siasm of the Judaeans for their religion presented a striking contrast to the indifference with which the Romans, both the priests and the laity, regarded their national worship. The loss of freedom in imperial Rome had carried away wdth it that ideality which inspires highly-gifted souls ; ardent and emotional minds sought in vain for some lofty interest to satisfy their longings. Several Roman proselytes, during the reign of Tiberius, gave evidence of their religi- ous enthusiasm by sending offerings to the Temple at Jerusalem. It may have been a feeling of super- stition, rather than conviction, which gave rise to conversions ; for from the converts gained for the cult of Isis in Rome, it was evident that the unknown, the strange, the mystical exercised a strong fascina- tion over those from whose lives all idealism was banished. The displeasure of Tiberius was incurred by the Roman proselytes for the first time under the follow- ing circumstances : — Fulvia, the wife of a very highly respected senator, had been converted to Judaism, and had sent offerings to the Temple through the agency of her teachers, who, however, had retained these offerings for themselves. As soon as these facts came to the ears of Tiberius, he presented a law against Judaeans to the Senate. That body consequently resolved that Judaeans must leave the city of Rome, on pain of becoming slaves for life, unless they abjured Judaism within a given time. This measure is said to have been urgently recom- mended by the minister Sejanus, who exercised a most powerful influence over Tiberius. Thousands of Judaean youths were, then and there, banished tc CH. V. PERSECUTION IN ROME. 1 37 Sardinia, to fight against the hordes of brigands that infested that island. Banishment to so unconofenial a climate was almost certain to be fatal to the unfortunate youths ; but this consideration did not lead the Emperor, as hard-hearted as his senators. to take a milder course. The Judseans throughout Italy were threatened with banishment if they did not forsake their religious observances ; all young men, in the prime of life, were forced to come armed into the camp on the Sabbath-day ; severe punishment followed if religious scruples dictated a refusal. This was the first time that the Judaeans had suffered religious persecution in Rome — their first martyrdom — destined to be the precursor of countless others. The Procurator Gratus, whom Tiberius had ap- pointed, took as active a part as his predecessors in the internal affairs of Judaea. During the eleven years that he occupied his post he installed as many as five high priests, of whom some only retained their office during one year. These changes were sometimes due to the unpopularity of the high priests, but were far more often the result of bribery or of wanton arbitrariness. Although Judaea and the neighboring lands of Idumaea and Samaria were ruled by Procurators, the tetrarchy of Galilee and Peraea enjoyed a sem- blance of independence under the reign of Herod Antipas, and the lands of Batanaea and Trachonitis under that of Philip. These two princes were dis- tinguished only for their passion for building and their submissiveness to Rome. Herod Antipas had at first made Sepphoris the capital of his tetrarchy, but as soon as Tiberius became emperor he built a new city in the lovely neighborhood of the lake of Gennesareth, which he named Tiberias, and where he established his court (24-26). But the pious Judaeans objected to living in this new city ; it had probably been built upon a site which had once 138 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. served as a battle-field, as a quantity of human bones were discovered there. The inhabitants were con- sequently prevented by the strict Levitical regula- tions from visiting the Temple, and performing vari- ous religious observances. Antipas induced the Judaeans to settle there only by holding out the most tempting offers and by using force ; and a cen- tury actually elapsed before the more conscientious members of the people consented to take up their abode in the city of Tiberias. The town of Beth-Ramatha, in a situation similar to that of Jericho, and also rich in the produce of balsam plants, was renamed Livia, in honor of the wife of Augustus. Philip, whose revenue from the country only amounted to one hundred talents, also built two cities. One of these he built in the beautiful district near the source of the Jordan, and named it Caesarea Philippi, to distinguish it from the seaport town of Caesarea ; the other, to the northeast of the Lake of Gennesareth, he named Julias, after the daughter of Augustus. Indeed, Judsea teemed with monuments erected in honor of the Caesars. Philip's disposition was gentle, and seemingly un- marred by fierce passions, and his reign, which lasted seven-and-thirty years (4 b. c -33 a. c), was quiet and uneventful. Antipas, on the contrary, had inherited some of his father's wild and bloodthirsty nature. The successor to the Governor Valerius Gratus was Pontius Pilate, whose tenure of office (26-36) embraced a decade memorable in the history of the world. As soon as he was in power, he showed the determination to subject the Judaeans to further humiliation, and to convince them that they must drink the cup of suffering to the dregs. The mere facts that Pilate was the creature of the de- ceitful minister Sejanus, before whom emperor and senate trembled alike, and that he was sent by him to Judaea, would suffice to describe his disposition. CH. V. PONTIUS PILATE. 1 39 Pilate was worthy of his master ; he certainly went far beyond any of his predecessors in wounding the susceptibilities of the Judaean nation. He attacked their religious scruples by endeavoring to induce them to pay homage to the emblems and insignia of imperialism. Till now the leaders of Roman troops had respected the aversion with which the Judaeans were known to regard all images, and on entering Jerusalem the obnoxious emblems had always been removed from the Roman standards. Herod and his sons had never failed to observe this practice. Although Pilate well knew that the feel- ings of Judaeans had never before been outraged on this subject, he paid no heed to them. It is not known whether he had received secret injunctions on this point from Sejanus, or whether he acted on his own authority, with the anticipation of a satisfac- tory bribe. He sent privately for all the imperial emblems in order to replace them upon the stand- ards which were in Jerusalem. The command that these representations of human beings were to be worshiped as deities caused the deepest indignation throughout the land. Delegates from the people, who were even joined by members of the Herodian family, hastened to the Procurator at Caesarea, and implored him to command the removal of the hated images. During five days the petitioners remained before the palace of the Procurator, sending up ceaseless supplications. On the sixth day Pilate attempted to terrify them, and threatened that they should be cut down by his legions if they did not immediately disperse. However, when he found that the Judaeans were determined to sacrifice their lives, if necessary, rather than their religious convictions, and perhaps afraid of the disapproval of Tiberius, he at last gave way, and issued a command that the cause of their ang-er should be removed. But he provoked the indignation of the inhabitants of Jeru- 140 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. V. salem against himself a short time after. He purposed making an aqueduct from a spring at a distance of four geographical miles from the town of Jerusalem, In order to meet the necessary ex- penses, he possessed himself of the treasures in the Temple (the korban). He was in Jerusalem at the time, and was surrounded by an angry populace, who assailed him with execrations. He did not venture to call out his legions, but ordered a number of soldiers to disguise themselves in the Judaean dress, and to mingle with the crowd and attack them. The multitudes rapidly dispersed, but not before pfreat numbers of them had been killed and wounded. CHAPTER VI. MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS AND ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. The Messianic Hope — Various Conceptions of the Expected Messiah — The Essene Idea of the Kingdom of Heaven — John the Bap- tist, his Work and Imprisonment— Jesus of Nazareth continues John's Labors — Story of his Birth— His Success — His Relations to Judaism and the Sects — His Miraculous Healing of the Sick and Exorcism of Demons — His Secret Appearance as the Mes- siah— His Journey to Judasa — Accusations against him, and his Condemnation — The First Christian Community and its Chiefs — The Ebionites — Removal of Pilate from Judasa — Vitellius, Gov- ernor of Syria, favors the Judaeans. 28—37 C. E. While Judsea was still trembling In fear of some new act of violence on the part of the governor, Pontius Pilate, which would again afflict the country with disturbances and troubles, a strangle event occurred. At first but little heeded, it soon ac- quired, through the singularity of its origin and many favorable attendant circumstances, a consid- erable degree of notoriety. So great were the strides this movement rapidly made to influence and power, that radical changes were produced by it and new paths opened in the history of the world. The time had come when the fundamental truths of Judaism, till then thoroughly known and rightly ap- preciated only by profound thinkers, were to burst their shackles and go freely forth among all the people of the earth. Sublime and lofty views of God and of holy living for the individual as well as for the state, which form the kernel of Judaism, were now to be disseminated among other nations and to bring them a rich and beneficent harvest. Israel was now to commence in earnest his sacred mission ; he was to become the teacher of nations. The ancient *4» 142 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. teaching about God and religious morality was to be introduced by him unto a godless and immoral world. Judaism, however, could gain admission into the hearts of the heathens only by taking another name and assuming new forms, for with its old designation and distinctive features it was not generally popular. It was due to the strange movement which arose under the governorship of Pilate that the teachings of Judaism won the sympathy of the heathen world. But this new form of Judaism, altered by foreign elements, became estranged from and placed itself in harsh antagonism to the parent source. Judaism, which had given birth to this new manifestation, could take no pleasure in her offspring, which soon turned coldly from her and struck out into strange, divergent paths. This new power, this old doctrine in a new garb, or rather this Essenism intermingled with foreign elements, is Christianity, whose advent and earliest course belong to the Judsean history of this epoch. Christianity owed its origin to an overpowering, mysterious feeling which reigned among the better classes of the Judsean nation, and which became daily stronger as their political position became more and more intolerable. The ever-recurring evils brought on them by the rapacity of their Roman rulers, the shamelessness of the Herodian princes, the cowardice and servility of the Judsean aristocracy, the debasement of the high priests and their families, and the dissensions of rival par- ties, had raised the longing for the deliverer an- nounced in the prophetical writings — the Messiah — to so great a pitch that any highly-gifted individual, possessed of outward charm or imbued with moral and religious grace, would readily have found dis- ciples, and believers in his Messianic mission. The most earnest thinkers of that time had long regarded the political condition of the Judseans since theii* CH. VI. THE MESSIANIC HOPE. 1 43 return from the Babylonian exile as a temporary or preparatory state, which would only continue until the true prophet arose, and Elijah turned the hearts of the fathers to the children, and restored the tribes of Jacob. When the people, with solemn rites, elected the Hasmonsean Simon as their prince, they decreed that he and his descendants should hold that position only until the True Prophet ap- peared to assume the royal dignity, and it was only to a scion of the House of David, the Anointed, that, according to prophecy, this dignity by right belonged. When, consequent upon the wars undertaken by the three powerful leaders, Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, ostensibly to punish Caesar's murderers, in reality to introduce a new form of government, the great political convulsion took place in the Roman Empire, and three divisions of the w^orld were laid waste, a Judaean poet in Egypt was fore- telhng a far different outcome — the destruction of the whole heathen world and the dawn of the " Kingdom of God." In that kingdom a holy king — the Messiah — would hold the scepter. "When Rome shall vanquish Egypt, and govern her, then shall the greatest in the kingdom, the immortal King, arise in the w^orld, and a holy King will come to rule over all the nations of the earth during all time." The Messiah, so confidently expected, was to bring forth quite a new state of things — a new heaven and a new earth. At the coming of Elijah, who was to be the precursor of the Messiah, the resurrection of the dead would take place, and a future world be revealed. This ardent longing for the Messiah, and the belief in his advent, swayed all classes of the Judaean nation, excepting the aristocracy and those who clung to Rome. These were satisfied with the present, and anticipated harm rather than benefit from any change. During the short space of thirty 144 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. years a great number of enthusiastic mystics ap- peared, who, without any intention to deceive, and bent upon removing the load of care and sorrow that weighed so heavily upon the people, assumed the character of prophet or Messiah, and found dis- ciples, who followed their banner faithfully unto death. Hut though it appears that every Messiah attracted ready believers, no one was acknowledged as such by the whole nation. The incessant friction between the various communities, and the deep study of the holy books, had awakened a critical spirit difficult to satisfy. The nation was also split into many parties, each entertaining a different idea of the future savior, and rendering it, therefore, impossible that any one aspirant should receive general recognition as the Messiah. The republican zealots, the disciples of Judas of Galilee, pictured the Messiah as delivering Israel from his enemies by the breath of his mouth, destroying the Roman Empire, and restoring the golden era of David's kingdom. The school of Shammai added to this representation of the Mes- siah the attributes of ardent religious zeal and per- fect moral purity. The followers of Hillel, less swayed by fanaticism or political views, expected a prince of peace, who would bring tranquillity to the country itself, and introduce harmony into its rela- tions with all its neighboring states. On one point, however, all agreed : the Messiah must spring from the branch of David ; and thus, in the course of time, the expression " Ben David " — the son of David — became identical with the Messiah. According to the prevailing belief, the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies required the return of the scattered tribes of Israel, richly laden with presents, expiatory offer- ings from the nations by which they had so long been oppressed. Even the most educated classes, who had felt the influence of Grecian culture, and were repre- sented by Philo, the Judaean Plato, fully believed that the Messianic age was to be ushered in, and CH. VI. THE ESSENES AND THE MESSIAH. 1 45 pictured it as an epoch of miracles. A heavenly apparition, only visible to the righteous, would lead back from Greece and barbarous lands the exiled and repentant Israelites. The latter would be found prepared for the Messianic time, following the holy life of the patriarchs, and imbued with a sublime and pious spirit, which would prevent them from falling into their old sins, and would surely call down upon them the full grace of God. Then would the streams of former happiness be again replenished from the eternal spring of Divine grace : the ruined cities would arise, the desert become a blooming land, and the prayers of the living would have the power of awakening the dead. It was the sect of Essenes that pictured the Mes- siah and the Messianic time in the most idealistic manner. The great object of their asceticism was to advance the kingdom of heaven (Malchuth Shamayim) and the coming era (Olam-ha-Ba). Their adherence would be granted alone to him who led a pure and spotless life, who renounced the world and its vanities, and gave proofs that the Holy Spirit (Ruach ha-Kodesh) dwelt within him. He must also have power over demons, reject Mammon, and inaugurate a system of community of goods, in which poverty and self-renunciation would be the ornaments of mankind. It was from the Essenes that for the first time the cry went forth, " The Messiah is coming ! The kingdom of heaven is near !" He who first raised his voice in the desert little thought it would re-echo far away over land and sea, and that it would be answered by the nations of the earth flocking together round the banner of a Messiah. In an- nouncing the kingdom of heaven, he only meant to invite the sinners among the Judaean people to pen- itence and reformation. The Essene who sent forth this call to the Israelites was John the Baptist (his name doubtless meaning the Essene, he who daily 146 HISTORY OK THE JEWS. CH. VI. bathed and cleansed both body and soul in spring water). Hut few accounts have reached us of John the Baptist. He led the same life as the Essenes, fed upon locusts and wild honey, and wore the garb of the prophets of old, a cloak of camel-hair fastened by a leather girdle. John appears to have fully entertained the belief, that if only the whole Judican nation would bathe in the river Jordan, acknowledge their sins, and adopt the strict rules of the Essenes, the promised Messianic time could be no longer deferred. He therefore called upon the people to come and receive baptism in the Jordan, to confess and renounce their sins, and thus prepare for the advent of the kingdom of heaven. John dwelt with other Essenes in the desert, in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, presumably in order to be ever at hand to teach the repentant sinners the deep moral signification of baptism. Bound up with that rite was doubtless the adoption of the rule of life of the Essenes. There were certainly many, imbued with an enthusiastic spirit, and sad- dened by the evils and the distress they witnessed, who eagerly responded to the cry of the Essene Baptist, Who would not gladly, were it only in his power to do so, further the great work of the Redemption, and help to advance the kingdom of heaven ? Did the baptized persons return improved by their im- mersion in the waters of the Jordan ? Was any great moral influence the result of this symbolical act ? History tells us not ; but our knowledge of the state of Judaea at that time can easily supply us with an answer to the question. The Jud^ean people did not as a whole, especially among the middle-class citizens, require this violent shock as a means of improvement ; they were neither vicious nor depraved, and their form of public religi- ous worship was sufficient to keep them in the right paths. By two sets of people, however, the call of John to repentance might have been heeded — it CH. VI. JOHN THE BAPTIST. I47 might have had a beneficial influence upon the higher and lower classes, upon the aristocracy and wealthy, who had been corrupted by Rome, and upon the miser- able peasantry, brutalized by constant warfare. But the rich only laughed at the high-souled enthusiast, who taught that baptism in the water of the Jordan would bring about the miraculous Messianic era, and the sons of the soil were too obtuse and ignorant to heed the Baptist's earnest cry. His appeal, on the other hand, had nothing in its tenor and character to offend the Pharisees, or arouse any opposition among the ranks of that ruling party. John's disciples, those who were bound closest to him, and who carried out his mode of living, kept strictly to the words of the Law, and observed all its prescribed fasts. If the Pharisees, comprising at that time the schools of Hillel and of Shammai, did not greatly favor the enthusiasm and extravagance of the Essenes, they placed them- selves in no direct antagonism to the Baptists. From their side, John would have met with no hindrance to his work, but the Herodians were sus- picious of a man who drew such throngs around him, whose burning words moved the hearts of his hearers in their very depths, and could carry away the multitude to the performance of any enterprise he chose to undertake. Herod Antipas, governor of the province in which the Baptist dwelt, gave his soldiers orders to seize and imprison him. How long a time he was kept in confinement, and whether he was still alive when one of his disciples was being proclaimed as the Messiah, must, on account of the untrustworthiness of the sources from which our information is derived, remain doubtful. It is authentic, however, that he was be- headed by the order of Antipas, whilst the story of the young daughter of Herodias bringing to her mother the bloody head of the Baptist upon a plat- ter is a mere legend. 148 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CII. VI. After the imprisonment of the Baptist, his work was carried on by some of his disciples, among whom no one exerted so powerful an influence as Jesus of Galilee. Jesus (short for Joshua), born in Nazareth, a small town in Lower Galilee, to the south of Sepphoris, was the eldest son of an other- wise unknown carpenter, Joseph, and of his wife Miriam or Mai-y, who bore him four more sons, Jacob, Jose, Judah, and Simon, and several daugh- ters. Whether Joseph or Mary, the father and mother of Jesus, belonged to the family of David cannot be proved. The measure of his mental culture can only be surmised from that existing in his native province. Galilee, at a distance from the capital and the Temple, was far behind Judaea in mental attainments and knowledge of the Law. The lively interchange of religious thought, and the discussions upon the Law, which made its writings and teachings the common property of all who sought the Temple, were naturally wanting in Galilee. The country, which, at a later period, after the destruction of the Temple, contained the great schools of Uscha, Sepphoris, and Tiberias, was at that time very poor in seats of learning. But, on the other hand, morality was stricter in Galilee, and the observance of laws and customs more rigidly enforced. The sliofhtest infrins:ement was not allowed, and what the Judaeans permitted them- selves, the Galilaeans would by no means consent to. They were also looked upon as fanatical dog- matists. Through their vicinity to the heathen Syrians, the Galilaeans had adopted many superstitions, and, owing to their ignorance of the nature of disease, the sick were often thought to be possessed by de- mons, and various forms of illness were ascribed to the influence of evil spirits. The language of the Galilaeans had also become corrupted by their Syrian neighbors, and was marred by the introduc- CH. VI. CONDITION OF GALILEE. 1 49 tion of Aramaic forms and words. The Galilaeans could not pronounce Hebrew with purity. They exchanged, and sometimes omitted, the guttural sounds, and thus often incurred the ridicule of the Judaeans, who thought a great deal of correct articu- lation. The first word he spoke revealed the Gali- Isean, and, as his language provoked laughter, he was not often allowed to lead in the recital of the prayers. The birthplace of Jesus, Nazareth, offered no particular attraction ; it was a small mountain- town, not more fertile than the other parts of Galilee, and bearing no comparison to the richly- watered Shechem. On account of his Galilaean origin, Jesus could not have stood high in that knowledge of the Law which, through the schools of Shammai and Hillel, had become prevalent in Judaea. His small stock of learning and his corrupt half-Aramaic language pointed unmistakably to his birthplace in Galilee. His deficiency in knowledge, however, was fully compensated for by his intensely sympathetic char- acter. High-minded earnestness and spotless moral purity were his undeniable attributes ; they stand out in all the authentic accounts of his life that have reached us, and appear even in those garbled teach- ings which his followers placed in his mouth. The gentle disposition and the humility of Jesus remind one of Hillel, whom he seems, indeed, to have taken as his particular model, and whose golden rule, "What you wish not to be done to yourself, do not unto others," he adopted as the starting-point of his moral code. Like Hillel, Jesus looked upon the promotion of peace and the forgiveness of injuries as the highest forms of virtue. His whole being was permeated by that deeper religiousness which con- secrates to God not only the hour of prayer, a day of penitence, and longer or shorter periods of devo- tional exercise, but every step in the journey of life, which turns every aspiration of the soul towards 150 HISTURV OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. Him, subjects everything to His will, and, with child-like trust, commits everything to His keeping. He was filled with tender brotherly love, which Judaism also teaches towards an enemy, and had reached the ideal of the passive virtues which the Pharisees inculcated : " Count yourself among the oppressed and not among the oppressors, receive abuse and return it not ; do all from love to God, and rejoice in suffering," Jesus doubtless pos- sessed warm sympathies and a winning manner, which caused his words to produce a deep and lasting effect. Jesus must, from the idiosyncrasies of his nature, have been powerfully attracted by the Essenes, who led a contemplative life apart from the world and its vanities. When John the Baptist — or more cor- rectly the Essene — invited all to come and receive baptism in the Jordan, to repent and prepare for the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus hastened to obey the call, and was baptized by him. Although it cannot be proved that Jesus was formally admitted into the order of the Essenes, much in his life and work can only be explained by the supposition that he had adopted their fundamental principles. Like the Essenes, Jesus highly esteemed self-inflicted poverty, and despised the mammon of riches. The following proverbs, ascribed to him, appear to bear his stamp : " Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven" (Luke vi. 20). "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God " (Matthew xix. 24). " No man can serve two mas- ters, ye cannot serve God and mammon " (Matthew vi. 24), Jesus shared the aversion of the Essenes to marriage : "It is not good to marry"(Matthew xix. 1 1 ). Community of goods, a peculiar doctrine of the Essenes, was not only approved of, but positively en- joined by Jesus ; like them, he also reprobated every form of oath. " Swear not at all " (so Jesus taught), " neither by heaven nor by the earth, nor by your CH. VI. JESUS OF NAZARETH. I 5 I head — but let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay " (James v. 12). Miraculous cures, said to have been performed by him — such as the exorcism of demons from those who believed themselves to be possessed — were often made by the Essenes, so to say, in a professional capacity. After John had been taken and imprisoned by Herod Antipas, Jesus thought simj^ly of continuing his master's work ; like him, he preached " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," without perhaps having then a suspicion of the part he was afterwards to play in that kingdom of heaven looked forward to in the approaching Messianic time. Jesus apparently felt that if his appeal was not to be lost in the desert like that of the Baptist, but, on the contrary, bring forth lasting results, it must not be addressed to the whole nation, but to a particular class of the Judaeans. The middle classes, the inhabitants of towns of greater or lesser importance, were not wanting in godliness, piety and morality, and consequently a call to them to repent and forsake their sins would have been meaningless. The declaration made to Jesus by the young man who was seeking the way of eternal life, " From my youth upwards, I have kept the laws of God ; I have not committed murder, nor adultery, nor have I stolen, nor borne false witness ; I have honored my father and mother, and loved my neighbor like myself," — this declara- tion might have been made by the greater number of the middle-class Judaeans of that time. The disciples of Shammai and Hillel, the followers of the zealot Judas, the bitter foes of the Herodians and of Rome, were not morally sick, and were not in need of the physician's art. They were ever ready for self-sacrifice, and Jesus wisely refrained from turning to them. Still less was he inclined to attempt to reform the rich, and he was repelled by the higher classes of Judaeans. From these, the warning 152 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. of the simple, unlearned moralist and preacher, his reproof of their pride, their venality and incon- stancy, would only have elicited mockery and de- rision. With right judgment, therefore, Jesus determined upon seeking out those who did not belong to, or had been expelled from the community for their religious offenses, and who had either not been allowed or had not desired to return to it. They were publicans and tax-gatherers, shunned by the patriots, as promoters of Roman interests, who turned their backs upon the Law, and led a wild, unshackled life, heedless alike of the past and of the future. There existed in Judaea many who had no knowledge of the great healing truths of Judaism, who were 'gnorant of its laws, and indifferent as to the glorious history of its past or its possible future. These were known as transgressors of the Law (Abrianim), or sinners as they were called, the friends of Herod and of Rome. There were also ignorant, poor handicraftsmen and menials (Am ha-Arez), who were seldom able to visit the Judaean capital, or listen to Judsean teachings, which, indeed, they would probably not have understood. It was not for them that Sinai had flamed, or the prophets had uttered their cry of warning ; for the teachers of the Law, more intent upon expounding doctrine than upon reforming their hearers, failed to make the Law and the prophets intelligible to those classes, and con- sequently did not draw them within their fold. It was to these outcasts that Jesus turned, to snatch them out of their torpor, their ignorance and ungodli- ness. He felt within himself the call to save " the lost sheep of the house of Israel." " They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick " (Matthew ix. 12). Intent upon the lofty mission which he had un- dertaken— to turn the ignorant and the godless, the sinner and the publican to repentance, and by virtue of the Essene mode of living to prepare CH. VI. THE WORK OF JESUS. I 53 them for the approaching- Messianic time — Jesus first sought his native town of Nazareth. But there, where he had been known from his infancy, and where the carpenter's son was not considered to possess superior sanctity but only inferior know- ledge, he was met with derision and contempt. When, on the Sabbath, he spoke in the synagogue about repentance, the listeners said to each other, " Is that not the son of Joseph the carpenter, and his mother and sisters, are they not all with us ? " and they said to him, " Physician, heal thy- self," and listened not to him. The ignominious treatment he received in his own birthplace caused him to utter the proverb, " The preacher is least regarded in his own country." He left Nazareth, never to return. A better result followed the teaching of Jesus in the town of Capernaum (Kefar Nahum), which was situated on the western coast of the Sea of Tiberias. The inhabitants of that delightfully situated town differed as much from the Nazarenes as their mild, fertile land from a rough and wild mountain gorge. In Capernaum there were doubt- less a greater number of men steeped in effeminacy and vice, and there existed, probably, a wider gap between the rich and the poor. But just on that account Jesus had more scope to work there, and an easier access was found for the earnest, penetrat- ing words which he poured forth from the depths of his soul. Many belonging to the lowest classes at- tached themselves to Jesus and followed him. Among his first disciples in Capernaum were Simon, called Kephas or Petrus (rock), and his brother Andrew, the sons of Jonah, both fishermen, the first, in some degree, a law-breaker, and also the two sons of a certain Zebedee, Jacob and John. He was also fol- lowed by a rich publican, called sometimes Matthew, sometimes Levi, in whose house Jesus often tarried, bringing with him companions from the classes then 154 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH, VI. looked down upon with the greatest contempt. Women likewise of doubtful repute were among his followers, the most conspicuous of the number being a native of the town of Magdala, near Tiberias, Mary Magdalene, from whom seven devils (according to the language of the time) had to be driven out. Jesus converted these abandoned sin- ners into remorseful penitents. It was, doubtless, an unheard-of thing at that time for a teacher of Judaism to hold intercourse with women at all, more especially with any of that description. He, however, by word and example raised the sinner and the publican, and filled the hearts of those poor, neglected, thoughtless beings with the love of God, transforming them into dutiful children of their heavenly Father. He animated them with his own piety and fervor, and improved their con- duct by the hope he gave them of being able to enter the kingdom of heaven. That was the greatest miracle that Jesus performed. Above all things, he taught his male and female disciples the Es- sene virtues of self-abnegation and humility, of the contempt of riches, of charity and the love of peace. He said to his followers, " Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass for your purses, neither two coats, neither shoes " (Matthew x. 9). He bade them become sinless as little children, and declared they must be as if born again if they would become members of the approaching kingdom of heaven. The law of brotherly love and forbearance he carried to the extent of self-immolation. " If you receive a blow on one cheek, turn the other one likewise, and if one takes your cloak, give him likewise your shirt." He taught the poor that they should not take heed for meat or drink or raiment, but pointed to the birds in the air and the lilies in the fields that were fed and clothed yet " they toil not, neither do they spin." He taught the rich how to distribute alms — " Let not thy left hand know CH. VI. JESUS AND JUDAISM. I 55 what thy right hand doeth." He admonished the hypocrite, and bade him pray in the secrecy of his closet, placing before him a short form of prayer — " Our Father which art in heaven," which may possibly have been in use among the Essenes. Jesus made no attack upon Judaism itself, he had no idea of becoming the reformer of Jewish doctrine or the propounder of a new law ; he sought merely to redeem the sinner, to call him to a good and holy life, to teach him that he is a child of God, and to prepare him for the approaching Messianic time. He insisted upon the unity of God, and was far from attempting to change in the slightest degree the Jewish conception of the Deity. To the question once put to him by an expounder of the Law, "What is the essence of Judaism ? " he replied, " ' Hear, O Israel, our God is one ' and ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' These are the chief commandments " (Mark xii. 28). His disciples, who had remained true to Judaism, promulgated the declaration of their Master — " I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill ; till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled " (Matthew v. 17). He must have kept the Sabbath holy, for those of his followers who were attached to Judaism strictly observed the Sabbath, which they would not have done had their master disre- garded it. It was only the Shammaitic strictness in the observance of the Sabbath, which forbade even the healing of the sick on that day, that Jesus pro- tested against, declaring that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Jesus made no objection to the existing custom of sacrifice, he merely demanded — and in this the Pharisees agreed with him — that reconciliation with one's fellow-man should precede any act of religious atonement. Even fasting found no opponent in him, so far as it was practised without ostentation or hypocrisy. He wore on his 156 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. garments the fringes ordered by the Law, and he belonged so thoroughly to Judaism that he shared the narrow views held by the Judaeans at that period, and thoroughly despised the heathen world. He was animated by that feeling when he said, " Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you." The merit of Jesus consists especially in his efforts to impart greater inner force to the precepts of Judaism, in the enthusiasm with which he obeyed them himself, in his ardor to make the Judaeans turn to God with filial love as children to their father, in his fervent upholding of the brotherhood of men, in his insistence that moral laws be placed in the foreground, and in his endeavors to have them accepted by those who had been hitherto regarded as the lowest and most degraded of human beings. It was not to be expected, however, that through his teaching alone Jesus could attract devoted followers, or achieve great results ; something more was required — something strange and won- derful to startle and inflame. His appearance, his mystical character, his earnest zeal produced, doubtless, a powerful effect, but to awaken in the dull and cold a lasting enthusiasm, to gain the confidence of the masses and to kindle their faith, it was necessary to appeal to their imagina- tion by strange circumstances and marvelous sur- roundings. The Christian chronicles abound in extraordinary events and descriptions of miraculous cures performed by Jesus. Though these stories may in part be due to an inclination to exaggerate and idealize, they must doubdess have had some foundation in fact. Miraculous cures — such, for example, as the exorcism of those possessed by demons — belonged so completely to the personality CH. VI. JESUS IN GALILEE. 15/ of Jesus that his followers boasted more of the exercise of that power than of the purity and holi- ness of their conduct. If we are to credit the his- torical accounts of that period, the people also admired Jesus more for the command he displayed over demons and Satan than for his moral great- ness. It was indeed on account of the possession of such power that he was first considered a super- natural being by the uncultured masses. Encouraged by the great effect he produced in Capernaum, where he found his first circle of dis- ciples, Jesus wandered about in the towns of Gali- lee, remaining some time in its second capital, Bethsaida, in Magdala, and in Chorazin, where he gained many followers. His presence, however, in Bethsaida and Chorazin could not have produced any lasting result, as he bewailed — according to the words placed in his mouth, " Woe unto thee, Cho- razin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida " — the spirit of opposition and indocility of their inhabitants. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, they were accursed. Still he had many faithful disciples, both men and women, who followed him everywhere, and obeyed him in all things. They renounced not only their former immoral and irreligious life, but also gave up all their possessions, carrying out the doctrine of the community of goods. The repasts they took in common formed, as it were, the connect- ing link which attached the followers of Jesus to one another, and the alms distributed by the rich publicans relieved the poor disciples of the fear of hunger, and thus bound them still more closely to Jesus. Among his followers Jesus selected as his pecu- liar confidants those who, distinguished by their superior intelligence or greater steadfastness of character, seemed best calculated to forward the aims he had in view. The number of these trusted disciples was not known, but tradition mentions 158 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. twelve, and calls them the twelve apostles — repre- sentatives, as it were, of the twelve tribes of Israel. His great design, the secret desire of his heart, Jesus disclosed on one occasion to the most inti- mate circle of his disciples. He led them to a retired spot at the foot of Mount Hermon, not far from Caesarea Philippi, the capital of the Tetrarch Philip, w^here the Jordan rushes forth from mighty rocks, and in that remote solitude he revealed to them the hidden object of his thoughts. But he contrived his discourse in such a manner that it ap- peared to be his disciples who at last elicited from him the revelation that he considered himself the expected Messiah. He asked his followers, " Who do men say that I, the son of man, am ? " Some re- plied that he was thought to be Elijah, the expected forerunner of the Messiah ; others, again, that he was the prophet whose advent Moses had predicted; upon which Jesus asked them, " But whom say ye that I am ? " Simon Peter answered and said, " Thou art the Christ." Jesus praised Peter's dis- cernment and admitted that he was the Messiah, but forbade his disciples from divulging the truth, or, for the present, from speaking about it at all. Such was the mysteriously-veiled birth of Chris- tianity. When, a few days later, the most trusted of his disciples, Simon Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, timidly suggested that Elijah must precede the Messiah, Jesus declared that Elijah had already appeared, though unrecog- nized, in the person of the Baptist. Had Jesus from the very commencement of his career nour- ished these thoughts in the depths of his soul, or had they first taken shape when the many followers he had gained seemed to make their realization possible ? Jesus never publicly called himself the Messiah, but made use of other expressions which were doubtless current among the Essenes. He spoke of himself as " the son of man," alluding CH. VI. THE CLAIMS OF JESUS. 1 59 probably to Daniel vii. 13, "One like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days," a verse which referred prob- ably to the whole people and its Messianic future, but which at that time was made to point to the Messiah himself. There was yet one other name which Jesus applied to himself in his Messianic character — the mysterious words " Son of God," probably taken from the seventh verse of the sec- ond Psalm, " The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son ; this day have I begotten thee." Was this expression used by Jesus figuratively, or did he wish it to be taken in a literal sense ? As far as we know, he never explained himself clearly on that subject, not even at a later date, when it was on account of the meaning attached to those words that he was undergoing his trial. His followers afterwards disagreed among themselves upon that matter, and the various ways in which they Inter- preted that ambiguous expression divided them into different sects, among which a new form of idolatry unfolded itself. When Jesus made himself known as the Messiah to his disciples, enjoining secrecy, he consoled them for the present silence imposed on them by the assurance that a time would come, when " What I tell you In darkness, that speak ye in light, and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house- tops." What occurred was doubtless contrary to what Jesus and his disciples expected, for as soon as it was known (the disciples having probably not kept the secret) that Jesus of Nazareth not only came to preach the Kingdom of Heaven, but was proclaimed as the expected Messiah, the public sentiment rose against him. Proofs and signs of his being the Messiah were asked, which he was not able to give, and he thus was forced to evade the questions addressed to him. Many of his fol- lowers seem to have been repelled by his assump- l60 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. tlon of the Messianic character, and so left him at once. " From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him" (John vi. 66)., In order not to be discredited in the eyes of his dis- ciples, it was essential that he should perform some miracle that would crown his work or seal it with his death. It was expected that he would now appear in Jerusalem before the whole nation in the character of the Messiah, and it is stated that his own brothers entreated of him to go there, so that his achieve- ments might at last become visible to his disciples. " For there is no man that doeth anything in secret and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world" (John vii. 4). Jesus thus found himself almost obliged to enter upon the path of danger. He was, moreover, no longer safe in Galilee, and appears to have been tracked and pursued from place to place by the servants of the Tetrarch Herod Antipas. It was at that time that Jesus said to one of his followers who clung to him in his distress, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head" (Matthew viii. 20). He wished to prevent any misconception as to his desire to alter the Law, and his reply to the Pharisee who asked what would be required of him if he became his disciple was, " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, sell what thou hast and give to the poor." When he had passed Jericho and was approaching Jerusalem, Jesus took up his abode near the walls of the capital, in the village of Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, where the lepers who were obliged to avoid the city had their settle- ment. It was in the house of one of these that shelter was given him. The other disciples whom he found at Bethany belonged also to the lower orders. They were Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. Only one resident of wealth and posi- tion in Jerusalem, Joseph of Arimathea, is said to have become a disciple of Jesus. CH. VI. JESUS AT JERUSALEM. l6l The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and his appearance in the Temple have been glorified by a halo of legends which contain but little historical truth. They show us Jesus accompanied in triumph by the people singing hosannas, the same people who a few days later were to demand his death. Both reports were inventions : the first was designed to prove that he was recognized as the Messiah by the people ; the second, to throw the guilt of his execution upon a^ . Israel. Equally unhistorical is the account of Jesus entering the Temple by force, throwing down the tables of the money-changers, and chasing away those who were selling doves. An act that must have given rise to intense excite- ment would not have been omitted from other chronicles of that period. It is not mentioned in any other writings of that time that the stalls of money-changers and dealers in doves had a place in the Temple. It Is just the most Important facts of the life of Jesus — the account of the attitude he assumed at Jerusalem before the people, the Synhedrion and the different sects, the announcement of himself as the Messiah, and the manner in which that announce- ment was received — that are represented in such various ways in the chronicles that It Is Impossible to separate the historical kernel from Its legendary exaggerations and embellishments. Prejudice cer- tainly existed against him In the capital. The educated classes could not Imagine the Messiah's saving work to be performed by an unlearned Galilaean ; indeed, the idea that the Messiah, who was expected to come from Bethlehem, out of the branch of David, should belong to Galilee, overthrew the long-cherished conviction of centuries. It is probably from this time that the proverb arose : " Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " (John I. 46). The devout took offense at his going about eating and drinking with sinners, publicans, 1 62 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. and women of a degraded class. Even the Essenes, John's disciples, were displeased at his infringement of rules and customs. The Shammaites were scan- dalized at his healing the sick on the Sabbath day, and could not recognize the Messiah in one who desecrated the Sabbath. He also roused the oppo- sition of the Pharisees by the disapproval he expressed here and there of their interpretations of the laws, and of the conclusions they drew from them. From Jesus the zealots could not look for deeds of heroism, for, instead of inspiring his followers with hatred of Rome, he advocated peace, and in his contempt for mammon admonished them to sub- mit willingly to the Roman tax-gatherers. " Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's " (Matt. xxii. 2 1). These startling peculiarities, which seemed to contradict the preconceived idea of the Messianic character, caused the higher and the learned classes to be coldly indifferent to him, and it is certain that he met with no friendly reception in Jerusalem. These various objections, however, to the mode of life and the tenets of Jesus afforded no ground for any legal accusation against him. Freedom of speech had, owing to the frequent debates in the schools of Shammai and Hillel, become so firmly established a right that no one could be attacked for expressing religious opinions, unless indeed he controverted any received dogma or rejected the conception of the Divinity peculiar to Judaism. It was just in this particular that Jesus laid himself open to accusation. The report had spread that he had called himself the Son of God — words which, if taken literally, wounded the religious feelings of the Judaean nation too deeply to allow him who had uttered them to pass unscathed. But how was it possible to ascer- tain the truth, to learn whether Jesus had really called himself the Son of God, and to know what meaning he attached to these words ? How was it CH. VI. JUDAS ISCARIOT. 1 63 possible to discover what was the secret of his sect ? To bring that to light it was necessary to seek a traitor among his immediate followers, and that traitor was found in Judas Iscariot, who, as it is related, incited by avarice, delivered up to the judges the man whom he had before honored as the ]\Ies- siah. One Judaean account, derived from what appears a trustworthy source, seems to place in the true lio-ht the use made of this traitor. In order to be able to arraign Jesus either as a false prophet or a seducer of the people, the Law demanded that two witnesses had heard him utter the dangerous language of which he was accused, and Judas was consequently required to induce him to speak whilst two hidden witnesses might hear and report his words. According to the Christian writings, the treachery of Judas manifested itself in pointing out Jesus through the kiss of homage that he gave his master as he was standing among his disciples, sur- rounded by the people and the soldiers. No sooner had Jesus been seized by the latter than his disciples left him and sought safety in flight, Simon Peter alone followinof him at some distance. At dawn of day on the 14th of Nissan, the Feast of the Passover, that is to say, on the eve of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Jesus was led, not before the great Synhe- drion, but before the smaller court of justice, com- posed of twenty-three members, over which the High Priest, Joseph Caiaphas, presided. The trial was to determine whether Jesus had really claimed to be, as the two witnesses testified, the Son of God ; for one cannot believe that he was arraigned before that tribunal because he had boasted that it was in his power to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Such a declaration, if really uttered by him, could not have been made a cause of complaint. The accusation doubtless pointed to the sin of blas- phemy, and to the supposed affirmation of Jesus that he was the Son of God. Upon the question 164 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. being put to him on that score, Jesus was silent and gave no answer. When the presiding judge, how- ever, asked him again if he were the Son of God, he is said to have repHed, " Thou hast said it," and to have added, " hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven." If these words were really spoken by Jesus, the judges could infer that he looked upon himself as the Son of God. The High Priest rent his garments at the impious asser- tion, and the court declared him guilty of blasphemy. From the account of the proceedings given by Chris- tian authorities, there is no proof that, according to the existing penal laws, the judges had pronounced an unjust verdict. All appearances were against Jesus. The Synhedrion received the sanction of the death-warrant, or rather the permission to execute it, from the governor, Pontius Pilate, who was just then present for the festival at Jerusalem. Pilate, before whom Jesus was brought, entering into the political side of the question, asked him if he declared himself to be not only the Messiah but the King of the Judseans, and as Jesus answered evasively, "Thou hast said it," he likewise decreed his execution, which he indeed alone had the power to enforce. That Pilate on the contrary found Jesus innocent and wished to save him, while the Judaeans had determined upon putting him to death, is unhistorical and merely legendary. When Jesus was scoffed at and obliged to wear the crown of thorns in ironical allusion to the Messianic and royal dignity he had assumed, it was not the Judaeans who inflicted those indignities upon him, but the Roman soldiers, who sought through him to deride the Judsean nation. Among the Judaeans who had condemned him there was, on the contrary, so little of personal hatred that he was treated exactly like any other criminal, and was given the cup of wine and frankincense to render him insen- CH. VI. DEATH OF JESUS. l6$ sible to the pains of death. That Jesus was scourged before his execution proves that he was treated according to the Roman penal laws ; for by the Judaean code no one sentenced to death could suffer flagellation. It was consequently the Roman lictors who maliciously scourged with fagots or ropes the self-styled King of the Judaeans. They also caused Jesus (by the order of Pilate) to be nailed to the cross, and to sufler the shameful death awarded by the law of Rome. For after the verdict of death was pronounced by the Roman authorities, the con- demned prisoner belonged no more to his own nation, but to the Roman state. It was not the Synhedrion but Pilate that gave the order for the execution of one who was regarded as a State crimi- nal and a cause of disturbance and agitation. The Christian authorities state that Jesus was nailed on the cross at nine o'clock in the morning, and that he expired at three o'clock in the afternoon. His last words were taken from a psalm, and spoken in the Aramaic tongue — "God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? " (Eli, eli, lama shebaktani.) The Roman soldiers placed in mockery the following inscription upon the cross: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Judaeans." The cross had been erected and the body was probably buried outside the town, on a spot which was the graveyard of condemned criminals. It was called Golgotha, the place of skulls. Such was the end of the man who had devoted him- self to the improvement of the most neglected, mis- erable, and abandoned members of his people, and who, perhaps, fell a victim to a misunderstanding. How great was the woe caused by that one execu- tion ! How many deaths and sufferings of every description has it not caused among the children of Israel ! Millions of broken hearts and tragic fates have not yet atoned for his death. He is the only mortal of whom one can say without exaggeration that his death was more effective than his life. Gol- 1 66 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. gotha, the place of skulls, became to the civilized world a new Sinai. Strange, that events fraught with so vast an import should have created so little stir at the time of their occurrence at Jerusalem, that the Judiean historians, Justus of Tiberias and Josephus, who relate, to the very smallest minutiae, everything which took place under Pilate, do not mention the life and death of Jesus. When the disciples of Jesus had somewhat recov- ered from the panic Avhich came upon them at the time he was seized and executed, they re-assembled to mourn together over the death of their beloved Master. The followers of Jesus then in Jerusalem did not amount to more than one hundred and twenty, and if all who believed in him in Galilee had been numbered, they would not have exceeded five hundred. Still, the effect that Jesus produced upon the unenlightened masses must have been very powerful ; for their faith in him, far from fading away like a dream, became more and more intense, their adoration of Jesus rising to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The only stumbling-block to their belief lay in the fact that the Messiah who came to deliver Israel and bring to light the glory of the kingdom of heaven, endured a shameful death. How could the Messiah be subject to pain? A suffering Messiah staggered them considerably, and this stumbling- block had to be overcome before a perfect and joyful belief could be reposed in him. It was at that moment probably that some writer relieved his own perplexities and quelled their doubts by referring to a prophecy in Isaiah, that " He will be taken from the land of the living, and will be wounded for the sins of his people." The humble, wavering disciples of Jesus were helped over their greatest difficulty by the Pharisees, who were in the habit of explaining the new or the marvelous by interpretations of Scrip- ture. By this means they afforded indirectly a solu- tion and support to Christianity, and thus belief was CH. VI. IDEA OF A SUFFERING MESSIAH. 167 given to the most senseless and absurd doctrines, and the incredible was made to appear certain and necessary. Without some support, however feeble, from Holy Writ, nothing new would have been received or could have kept its ground. By its help ever}'thing that happened was shown to have been inevitable. Even that Jesus should have been executed as a malefactor appeared pregnant with meaning, as it fulfilled the literal prophecy concern- ingf the Messiah. Was it not written that he should be judged among the evil-doers ? His disciples declared they had heard Jesus say that he would be persecuted even unto death. Thus his sufferings and death were evident proofs that he was the Mes- siah. His followers examined his life, and found in every trivial circumstance a deeper Messianic signifi- cance ; even the fact that he was not born in Beth- lehem, but in Nazareth, appeared to be the fulfillment of a prophecy. Thus he might therefore be called a Nazarene (Nazarite ?), and thus were his followers persuaded that Jesus, the Nazarene, was Christ (the Messiah). When the faithful were satisfied on that point, it was not difficult to answer the other ques- tion which naturally offered itself — When would the promised kingdom of heaven appear, since he who was to have brought it had died on the cross ? Hope replied that the Messiah would return in all his glory, with the angels of heaven, and then every one would be rewarded according to his deeds. They believed that some then alive would not taste death until they had seen the Son of Man enter his king- dom. His disciples were hourly expecting the return of Jesus, and only differed from the Judaeans in so far as they thought that the Messiah had already appeared in human form and character. This kingdom was to last a thousand years : the Sabbath year of jubilee, after the six thousand years of the world, would be founded by Jesus when he returned to the earth, bringing the blessing of peace l68 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI and perfect happiness to the faithful. This belief required the further conviction that Jesus had not fallen a prey to death, but that he would rise again. It may have been the biblical story of Jonah's entombment for three days in the bowels of a fish which gave rise to the legend that Jesus after the same interval came forth from his sepulcher, which was found to be empty. Many of his disciples declared they had seen him after his death, now in one place, now in another ; that they had spoken to him, had marked his wounds, and had even partaken of fish and honey with him. Nothing seemed to stagger their faith in the Messianic character of Jesus ; but greatly as they venerated and glorified him, they had not yet raised him above humanity ; in spite of the enthusiasm wath which he inspired them, they could not look upon him as God. They regarded him only as a highly gifted man who, having obeyed the Law more completely than any other human being, had been found worthy to be the Messiah of the Lord. They deviated in no degree from the precepts of Judaism, observing the Sabbath, the rite of circum- cision, and the dietary laws, whilst they also rever- enced Jerusalem and the Temple as holy places. They were, however, distinguished from the other Judaeans in some peculiarities besides the belief they cherished that the Messiah had already appeared. The poverty which they willingly embraced in accordance with the teaching of Jesus was a remark- able trait in them. From this self-imposed poverty they were called Ebionites (poor), a name they either gave themselves or received from those who had not joined them. They lived together, and each new disciple was required to sell his goods and chattels and to pour the produce into the common purse. To this class belonged the early Christians, or Judsean Christians, who were called Nazarenes, CH. VI. THE EBIONITES. 169 and not, according to their origin, Essenes. Seven administrators were appointed, as was usual among the Judaeans, to manage the expenditure of the com- munity, and to provide for their common repasts. They abstained from meat, and followed the way of the Essenes, whom they also resembled in their practice of celibacy, in their disuse of oil and super- fluous garments, a single one of white linen being all each possessed. It is related of James, the brother of Jesus, who, on account of his near rela- tionship to the founder, was chosen leader of the early Christian community, and was revered as an example, that he drank no wine or intoxicating beverages, that he never ate meat, allowed no scis- sors to touch his hair, wore no woolen material, and had only one linen garment. He lived strictly according to the Law, and was indignant when the Christians allowed themselves to transgress it. Next to him at the head of the community of Ebionites stood Simon Kephas or Petrus, the son of Jonas, and John the son of Zebedee, who became the pillars of Christianity. Simon Peter was the most energetic of all the disciples of Jesus, and was zealous in his endeavors to enroll new followers under the banner of Christianity. In spite of the energy he thus dis- played, he is described as being of a vacillating character. The Christian chronicles state that when Jesus was seized and imprisoned he denied him three times, and was called by his master " him of little faith." He averred, with the other disciples, that they had received from Jesus the mission of preach- ing to the lost children of the house of Israel the doctrine of the brotherhood of man and the commu- nity of goods ; like Jesus and John the Baptist, they were also to announce the approaching kingdom of heaven. Christianity, only just born, went instantly forth upon her career of conquest and proselytism. The disciples asserted that Jesus had imparted to them the power of healing the sick, of awakening 170 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI the dead, and of casting out evil spirits. With them the practice of exorcism became common, and thus the beHef in the power of Satan and demons, brought from GaHlee, first took form and root. In Judaism itself the belief in demons was of a harmless nature, without any religious significance. Christianity first raised it to be an article of faith, to which hecatombs of human beings were sacrificed. The early Chris- tians used, or rather misused, the name of Jesus for purposes of incantation. All those who believed in Jesus boasted that it was given to them to drive away evil spirits, to charm snakes, to cure the sick by the laying on of their hands, and to partake of deadly poisons without injury to themselves. Exor- cism became by degrees a constant practice among Christians ; the reception of a new member was preceded by exorcism, as though the novice had till then been possessed by the devil. It was, there- fore, not surprising that the Christians should have been looked upon by Judaeans and heathens as con- jurors and magicians. In the first century, however, Christians attracted but little attention in Judaean circles, escaping observation on account of the humble class to which they belonged. They formed a sect of their own, and were classed with the Essenes, to whom, in many points, they bore so great a resemblance. They might probably have dwindled away altogether had it not been for one who appeared later in their midst, who gave pub- licity to the sect, and raised it to such a pinnacle of fame that it became a ruling power in the world. An evil star seems to have shone over the Judcean people during the hundred years which had elapsed since the civil wars under the last Hasmonaeans, which had subjected Judaea to Rome. Every new event appeared to bring with it some new misfortune. The comforting proverb of Eccle- siastes, that there is nothing new under the sun, in this instance proved false. The Messianic vision CH. VI. CHRISTIANITY. I7I which had indistinctly floated in the minds of the people, but which had now taken a tangible form, was certainly something- new ; and this novel appa- rition, with its mask of death, was to inflict new and painful wounds upon the nation. Christianity, which came from Nazareth, was really an offshoot of the sect of the Essenes, and inherited the aversion of that sect for the Phari- saic laws by which the life of the people was regulated. This aversion rose to hatred in the followers, stimulated by grief at the death of their founder. Pontius Pilate had greatly contributed to increasing of the enmity of the Christians against their own flesh and blood. He it was who added mockery and scorn to the punishment of death ; he had bound their Messiah to the cross like the most abject slave, and in derision of his assumed royalty had placed the crown of thorns on his head. The picture of Jesus nailed to the cross, crowned with thorns, the blood streaming from his wounds, was ever present to his followers, filling their hearts with bitter thoughts of revenge. Instead of turn- ing their wrath against cruel Rome, they made the representatives of the Judaean people, and by de- grees the whole nation, responsible for inhuman deeds. They either intentionally deceived them- selves, or in time really forgot that Pilate was the murderer of their master, and placed the crime upon the heads of all the children of Israel. At about this period the anger of Pilate was kindled against a Samaritan self-styled Messiah or prophet, who called his believers together in a village, promising to show them on Mount Gerizim the holy vessels used in the time of Moses. The Governor, who looked with suspicion upon every gathering of the people, and regarded every exciting incident as fraught with possible rebellion against the Roman Empire, led his troops against the Samaritans, and ordered the ringleaders, who had 172 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VI. been caught in their flight, to be cruelly executed. Judaeans and Samaritans jointly denounced his barbarity to Vitellius, the Governor of Syria, and Pilate was summoned to Rome to justify himself. The degree of favor shown to the Judaeans by Tiberius after the fall of Sejanus, explains the other- wise surprising leniency evinced towards the Judaan nation at that time. The Judaeans had found an advocate at court in Antonia, the sister-in-law of Tiberius. The latter, who was the friend of a patriotic prince of the house of Herod, had revealed to Tiberius the plot framed against him by Sejanus, and in grateful recognition Tiberius repealed the act of outlawry against the Judaeans. Vitellius, the Governor of Syria, was graciously inclined towards the Judaeans, and not only inquired into their com- plaints, but befriended them in every way, showing a degree of indulgence and forbearance most unusual in a Roman, in those subjects on which they were peculiarly sensitive. When, on the occasion of the Feast of Passover, Vitellius repaired to Jeru- salem in order to make himself acquainted with all that was going on there, he sought to lighten as much as possible the Roman yoke. He remitted the tax on the fruits of the market, and as the capital was mainly dependent upon that market for its requirements, a heavy burden was thus removed from the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He further with- drew the pontifical robes from behind the lock and bolts of the fort of Antonia, and gave them o\^er to the care of the College of Priests, who kept them for some time. The right of appointing the High Priest was considered too important to the interests of Rome to be relinquished, and Vitellius himself made use of it to install Jonathan, the son of Anan, in the place of Joseph Caiaphas. Caiaphas had acted in con- cert with Pilate during all the time he had governed, and from his good understanding with the latter had doubtless become distasteful to the Judaean nation. CH. VI. VITELLIUS. 1 73 The favor granted to the Jud^ans by Vitellius was in accordance with the wishes of the Emperor, who commanded him to aid the nation with all the avail- able Roman forces in an unjust cause — that of Herod Antipas against King Aretas. Antipas, who was married to the daughter of Aretas, king of the Nabathaeans, had nevertheless fallen in love with Herodias, the wife of his half-brother Herod, who, disinherited by his father Herod I., led a private life, probably in Csesarea. During a journey to Rome, Antipas became acquainted with Herodias, who, doubtless repining at her obscure position, aban- doned her husband, and after the birth of a daughter contracted an illegal marriage with his brother. Antipas' first wife, justly exasperated at his shame- less infidelity, had fled to her father Aretas, and urged him to make war upon her faithless husband. Antipas suffered a great defeat, which was no sooner made known to the Emperor than he gave Vitellius orders instantly to undertake his defense against the kinof of the Nabathaeans. As Vitellius was about to conduct two legions from Ptolemais through Judaea, the people took offense at the pictures of the Emperor which the soldiers bore on their standards, and which were to have been carried to Jerusalem, but out of regard to the scruples of the Judaeans, Vitellius, instead of leading his army through Judaea, conveyed it along the farther side of the Jordan. Vitellius himself was received with the greatest favor in Jerusalem, and offered sacrifices in the Temple. Of all the Roman governors he was the one who had shown most kindness to the Judaeans. CHAPTER VII. AGRIPPA I. HEROD II. Character of Agrippa — Envy of the Alexandrian Greeks towards the Judseans — Anli-Judaean Literature — Apion — Measures against the Judaeans in Alexandria — Flaccus — Judaean Embassy to Rome — Philo — Caligula's Decision against the Judaean Embassy — Caligula orders his Statue to be placed in the Temple— The Death of Caligula relieves the Judaeans — Agrippa's Advance under Claudius — His Reign — Gamaliel the Elder and his Ad- ministration— Death of Agrippa — Herod II — The False Messiah, Theudas — Death of Herod II. 37—49 C. E. After the murder of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, when the Senate indulged for the moment in the sweet dream of regaining its Hberty, Rome could have had no forebodings that an enemy was born to her in Jerusalem, in the half-fledged Christian com- munity, which would in time to come displace her authority, trample upon her gods, shatter her power, and bring about a gradual decadence, ending in complete decay. An idea, conceived and brought forth by one of Judaean birth and developed by a despised class of society, was to tread the power and glory of Rome in the dust. The third Roman Emperor, Caius Caligula Germanicus, was himself instrumental in delivering up to national contempt the Roman deities, in a sense the corner-stone of the Roman Empire. The throne of the Caesars had been alternately in the power of men actuated by cruel cowardice and strange frenzy. None of the nations tributary to Rome suffered more deeply from this continual change in her masters than did the Judaeans. Every change in the great offices of state affected Judaea, at times favorably, but more often unfavorably. The first years of Caligula's reign appeared to be auspicious for Judaea. Caligula «74 CH. VII. AGRIPPA I. 175 Specially distinguished one of the Judrean princes, Agrippa, with marks of his favor, thus holding out the prospect of a milder rule. But it was soon evi- dent that this kindness, this good-will and favor, were but momentary caprices, to be followed by others of a far different end of a terrible character, which threw the Judseans of the Roman Empire into a state of fear and terror. Agrippa (born 10 b. c. e., died 44 c.e.) was the son of the prince Aristobulus who had been assassin- ated by Herod, and grandson of the Hasmonxan princess Mariamne ; thu3 in his veins ran the blood of the Hasmonaeans md Idumseans, and these two hostile elements appeared to fight for the mastery over his actions, until at last the nobler was victor- ious. Educated in Rome, in the companionship of Drusus, the son of Tiberius, the Herodian element in Agrippa was the first to develop. As a Roman courtier, intent upon purchasing Roman favor, he dissipated his fortune and fell into debt. Forced to quit Rome for Jiidaea, after the death of his friend Drusus, he was reduced to such distress that he, who was accustomed to live with the Caesars, had to hide in a remote part of Idumsea. It was then that he contemplated suicide. But his high-spirited wife, Cypros, who was resolved to save him from despair, appealed to his sister Herodias, Princess of Galilee, for instant help. And it was through the influence of Antipas, the husband of this princess, that Agrippa was appointed overseer of the markets of Tiberias. Impatient of this dependent condi- tion, he suddenly resigned this office and became courtier to Flaccus, governor of Syria. From this very doubtful position he was driven by the jealousy of his own brother Aristobulus. Seemingly aban- doned by all his friends, Agrippa determined upon once more trying his fortune in Rome. The richest and most distinguished Judaeans of the Alex- andrian community, the Alabarch, Alexander Lysi- 176 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. machus, with whom he had taken refuge, provided him with the necessary means for his journey. This noisiest Judcean of his age, guardian of the property of the young Antonia, the daughter of the triumvir, had evidently rendered such services to the imperial family that he had been adopted into it, and was allowed to add their names to his own — Tiberius Julius Alexander, son of Lysimachus. He possessed, without doubt, the fine Greek culture of his age, for his brother Philo was a man of the most exquisite taste in Greek letters. But none the less did the Alabarch Alexander cling warmly to his people and to his Temple. Resolved to save Agrippa from ruin, but distrustful of his extravagant character, he insisted that his wife Cypros should become hostage for him. A new life of adventure now commenced in Rome for Agrippa. He was met on the Isle of Capri by the Emperor Tiberius, who, in remembrance of Agrippa's close connection with the son he had lost, received him most kindly. But upon hearing of the enormous sum of money that Agrippa still owed to the Roman treasury, Tiberius allowed him to fall into disgrace. He was saved, however, by his patroness Antonia, the sister-in-law of the emperor, who maintained a friendly remembrance of Agrippa's mother Berenice. By her mediation he was raised to new honors, and became the trusted friend of the heir to the throne, Caius Caligula. But, as though Agrippa were destined to be the toy of every caprice of fortune, he was soon torn from his inter- course with the future emperor and thrown into prison. In order to flatter Caligula, Agrippa once expressed the wish, "Would that Tiberius would soon expire and leave his throne to one worthier of it." This was repeated by a slave to the emperor, and Agrippa expiated his heedlessnessby an impris- onment of six months, from which the death of Tiberius at last set him free (37). CH. VII. AGRIPPA IN ROME. 177 With the accession to the throne of his friend and patron, Caligula, his star rose upon the horizon. When the young emperor opened the prison-door to Agrippa he presented him with a golden chain, in exchange for the iron one that he had been forced to wear on his account, and placed the royal diadem upon his head, giving him the principality of Philip, that had fallen to the Empire of Rome. By decree of the Roman Senate he also received the title of Praetor. So devoted was Caligula to Agrippa that, during the first year of his reign, the Roman emperor would not hear of his quitting Rome, and when at length Agrippa was permitted to take pos- session of his own kingdom, he had to give his sol- emn promise that he would soon return to his imperial friend. When Agrippa made his entry into Judaea as mon- arch and favorite of the Roman emperor, poor and deeply in debt though he had been when he left it, his wonderful change of fortune excited the envy of his sister Herodias. Stung by ambition, she implored of her husband also to repair to Rome and to obtain from the generous young emperor at least another kingdom. Once more the painful want of family affection, common to all the Herodians, was brought to light in all its baseness. Alarmed that Antipas might succeed in winning Caligula's favor, or indig- nant at the envious feelings betrayed by his sister, Agrippa accused Antipas before the emperor of treachery to the Roman Empire. The unfort- unate Antipas was instantly deprived of his princi- pality and banished to Lyons, whither he was followed by his faithful and true-hearted wife. Herod's last son, Herod Antipas, and his grand- daughter, Herodias, died in exile. Agrippa, by imperial favor, became the heir of his brother-in-law, and the provinces of Galilee and Peraea were added to his other possessions. The favor evinced by Caligula towards Agrippa, 178 IIISTURV OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. which might naturally be extended to the Juda^an people, awakened the envy of the heathens, and brought the hatred of the Alexandian (Greeks to a crisis. Indeed, the whole of the Roman Empire harbored secret and public enemies of the Judicans. Hatred of their race and of their creed was intensi- fied by a lurking fear that this despised yet proud nation might one day attain to supreme power. But the hostile feeling against the Judceans reached its climax amongst the restless, sarcastic and pleasure- loving Greek inhabitants of Alexandria. They looked unfavorably upon the industry and prosperity of their Juda^an neighbors, by whom they were sur- passed in both these respects, and whom they did not excel even in artistic and philosophical attain- ments. These feelings of hatred dated from the time when the Egyptian queen entrusted Juda^an generals with the management of the foreign affairs of her country, and they increased in intensity when the Roman emperors placed more confidence in the reliable Judaeans than in the frivolous Greeks. Slanderous writers nourished this hatred, and in their endeavors to throw contempt upon the Judaeans they falsified the history of which the Judaeans were justly proud. The Stoic philosopher Posidonius circulated false legends about the origin and the nature of the divine worship of the Judaeans, which legends had been originally invented by the courtiers of Anti- ochus Epiphanes. The disgraceful story of the worship of an ass in the Temple of Jerusalem, be- sides other tales as untrue and absurd, added to the assertion that the Judaeans hated all Gentiles, found ready belief in a younger, contemporary writer, Apollonius Malo, with whom Posidonius had be- come acquainted in the island of Rhodes, and by whom they were widely circulated. Malo gave a new account of the history of the Judaean exodus, which he declared was occasioned by some enormity CH. VII. STRABO. 179 on the part of the Judaeans ; he described Moses as a criminal, and the Mosaic Law as containing the most abominable precepts. He declared that the Judaeans were atheists, that they hated mankind in general ; he accused them of alternate acts of cowardice and temerity, and maintained that they were the most uncultured people amongst the bar- barians, and could not lay claim to the invention of any one thing which had benefited humanity. It was from these two Rhodian authors that the spite- ful and venom-tongued Cicero culled his unworthy attack upon the Judaean race and the Judaean Law. In this respect he differed from Julius C^esar, who, in spite of his associations with Posidonius and Malo, was entirely free from all prejudice against the Judaeans. The Alexandrian Greeks devoured these calum- nies with avidity, exaggerated them, and gave them still wider circulation. Only three Greek authors mentioned the Judaeans favorably — Alexander Poly- histor, Nicolaus of Damascus, the confidant of Herod, and, lastly, Strabo, the most remarkable geographer of ancient times, who devoted a fine passage in his geographical and historical work to Judaism, Although he mentions the Judaeans as having originated from Egypt, he does not repeat the legend that their expulsion was occa- sioned by some fault of their own. Far otherwise he explains the Exodus, affirming that the Egyptian mode of life, with its unworthy idolatry, had driven Moses and his followers from the shores of the Nile. He writes in praise of the Mosaic teaching relative to the unity of God, as opposed to the Egyptian plurality of deities, and of the spiritual, imageless worship of the Judaeans in contrast to the animal worship of the Egyptians, and to the investing of the divinity with a human form among the Greeks. "How can any sensible man," he exclaims, "dare make an image of the Heavenly King?" Widely I So HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. opposed to the calumniators of Judaism, Strabo teaches that the Mosaic Law was the great mainstay of righteousness, for it holds out the divine blessing to all those whose lives are pure. For some time after the death of their great lawgiver, Strabo main- tains that the Judseans acted in conformity with the Law, doing right and fearing God. Of the sanctuary in Jerusalem he speaks with veneration, for, although the Judaean kings were often faithless to the Law of Moses and to their subjects, yet the capital of the Judaeans was invested with its own dignity, and the people, far from looking upon it as the seat of despotism, revered and honored it as the Temple of God. One author exceeded all the other hostile writers in the outrageous nature of his calumnies ; this was the Egyptian Apion, who was filled with burning envy at the prosperous condition of the Juda^ans. He gave a new and exaggerated account of all the old stories of his predecessors, and gained the ear of the credulous multitude by the readiness and fluency of his pen. Apion was one of those charlatans whose conduct is based on the as- sumption that the world wishes to be deceived, and therefore it shall be deceived. As expounder of the Homeric songs, he traveled through Greece and Asia Minor, and invented legends so flattering to the early Greeks that he became the hero of their descendants. He declared that he had witnessed most things of which he wrote, or that he had been instructed in them by the most reliable people ; and even affirmed that Homer's shade had appeared to him, and had divulged which Grecian town had given birth to the oldest of Greek bards, but that he dared not publish that secret. On account of his intense vanity he was called the trumpet of his own fame, for he assured the Alexandrians that they were for- tunate in being able to claim him as a citizen. It is not astonishing that so unscrupulous a man should CH. VII. ANTI-JUD.^AN MOVEMENT. l8l have made use of the hatred they bore to the Judaeans to do the latter all the injury in his power. But the hostility of the Alexandrians, based on envy and religious and racial antipathy, was sup- pressed under the reign of Augustus and Tiberius, when the imperial governors of Egypt sternly repri- manded all those who might have become disturbers of the peace. Affairs changed, however, when Calig- ula came to the throne, for the Alexandrians were then aware that the governor Flaccus, who had been a friend of Tiberius, was unfavorably looked upon by his successor, who was ready to lend a willing ear to any accusation against him. Flaccus, afraid of drawing the attention of the revengeful emperor upon himself, was cowed into submission by the Alexandrians, and became a mere tool in their hands. At the news of Agrippa's accession to the throne, they were filled with burning envy, and the delight of the Alexandrian Judaeans, with whom Agrippa came into contact through the Alabarch Alexander, only incensed them still more and roused them to action. Two most abject beings were the originators and leaders of this anti-Judaean demonstration ; a venal clerk of the court of justice, Isidorus, who was called by the popular wits, the Pen of Blood, because his pettifoggery had robbed many of their life, and Lampo, one of those unprincipled profligates that are brought forth by a burning climate and an im- moral city. These two agitators ruled, on the one hand, the weak and helpless governor, and, on .the other, they led the dregs of the people, who were prepared to give vent to their feelings of hatred to- wards the Judaeans upon a sign from their leaders. Unfortunately, Agrippa, whose change of fortune had been an offense in the eyes of the Alexandrians, touched at their capital upon his return from Rome to Judaea (July, 38), and his presence roused the enemies of the Judaeans to fresh conspiracies. 1 82 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. These began with a farce, but ended for the Judaeans in terrible earnest. At first Agrippa and his race were insultingly jeered at. A harmless fool, Cara- bas, was tricked out in a crown of papyrus and a cloak of plaited rushes ; a whip was given him for a scepter, and he was placed on an eminence for a throne, where he was saluted by all passers-by as Marin (which, in the Chaldaic tongue, denotes "our master"). This was followed by the excitable mob's rushing at the dawn of the next day into the syna- gogues, carrying with them busts of the emperor, with the pretext of dedicating these places of wor- ship to Caligula. In addition to this, at the impor- tunate instance of the conspirators, the governor, Flaccus, was induced to withdraw from the Judaean inhabitants of Alexandria what they had held so gratefully from the first emperors — the right of citizenship. This was a terrible blow to the Ju- daeans of Alexandria, proud as they were of their privileges, and justly entitled to the credit of having enriched this metropolis by their learning, their wealth, their love of art and their spirit of commerce equally with the Greeks. They were cruelly driven out of the principal parts of the city of Alexandria, and were forced to congregate in the Delta, or harbor of the town. The mob, greedy for spoil, dashed into the deserted houses and work- shops, and plundered, destroyed and annihilated what had been gathered together by the industry of centuries. After committing these acts of depredation, the infuriated Alexandrians surrounded the Delta, under the idea that the unfortunate Judaeans would be driven to open resistance by the pangs of hunger or by the suffocating heat they were enduring in their close confinement. When at last the scarcity of provisions impelled some of the besieged to venture out of their miserable quarters, they were cruelly ill-treated by the enemy, tortured, and either CH. VII. THE JUD^ANS IN ALEXANDRIA, 1 83 burnt alive or crucified. This state of things lasted for a month. The governor went so far as to arrest thirty-eight members of the Great Council, to throw them into prison and publicly to scourge them. Even the female sex was not spared. If any maidens or women crossed the enemy's path they were offered pig's flesh as food, and upon their refusing to eat it they were cruelly tortured. Not satisfied with all these barbarities, Flaccus ordered his soldiers to search the houses of the Judaeans for any weapons that might be concealed there, and they were told to leave not even the chambers of modest maidens unsearched. This reign of terror continued until the middle of September. At that time an imperial envoy appeared to depose Flaccus and to summon him to Rome, not on account of his abominable conduct towards the Judaeans, but because he was hated by the emperor. His sen- tence was exile and he was eventually killed. The emperor alone could have settled the vexed question as to whether the Judaeans had the right of equal citizenship with the Greeks in Alexandria ; but he was then in Germany or in Gaul celebrating childish triumphs, or in Britain gathering shells on the seashore. When he returned to Rome (August, 40) with the absurd idea of allowing himself to be worshiped as a god, and of raising temples and statues to his own honor, the heathen Greeks justly imagined that their cause against the Judaeans was won. They restored the imperial statues in the Alexandrian synagogues, convinced that in the face of so great a sacrilege the Judaeans would rebel and thereby arouse the emperor's wrath. This was actually the cause of a fresh disturbance, for the new governor of Alexandria took part against the Judaeans, courting in this way the imperial favor. He insisted that the unhappy people should show divine honors to the images of the emperor, and when they refused on the ground that such an act 184 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. was contrary to their Law, he forbade their observ- ance of the Sabbath day. In the following words he addressed the most distinguished of their race : " How would it be if you were suddenly over- whelmed by a host of enemies, or by a tremendous inundation, or by a raging fire ; if famine, pestilence or an earthquake were to overtake you upon the Sabbath day? Would you sit idly in your syna- gogues, reading the Law and expounding difficult passages ? Would you not rather think of the safety of parents and children, of your property and possessions, would you not fight for your lives ? Now behold, if you do not obey my commands, I will be all that to you, the invasion of the enemy, the terrible inundation, the raging fire, famine, pes- tilence, earthquake, the visible embodiment of relentless fate." But neither the rich nor the poor allowed themselves to be coerced by these w^ords ; they remained true to their faith, and prepared to undergo any penalties that might be inflicted upon them. Some few appear to have embraced pagan- ism out of fear or from worldly motives. The Judaean philosopher, Philo, gives some account of the renegades of his time and his community, whom he designates as frivolous, immoral, and utterly unworthy. Amongst them may be mentioned the son of the Alabarch Alexander, Tiberius Julius Alexander, who forsook Judaism, and w^as conse- quently raised to high honors in the Roman State. Meanwhile, the Judseans determined upon plead- ing their cause before the emperor. Three men (who were specially adapted for their mission) were selected to be sent as envoys to Rome. One of these, the Judcean philosopher, Philo, was so far distinguished through birth, social standing, pro- found culture, and brilliant eloquence, that no better pleader for the cause of justice could have been, found. Through the medium of his powerful writ- ings Philo has so largely influenced not only his CH. VII. riiiLo. 185 contemporaries but also those who came after him, both within and without the Juda^an community, that the scanty accounts of his hfe must not be passed over. As brother of the Alabarch Alex- ander, Philo belonged to the most distinguished and wealthy family of the Alexandrian community. He received in his youth the usual education which all well-born parents held as necessary for their sons. Possessed of unquenchable love for learning, he obtained complete mastery over his studies. His taste for metaphysical research was developed at a very early age, and he devoted him- self to it untiringly for a time, taking delight in that alone. He affirms enthusiastically that he had no desire for honors, wealth, or material pleasures, so long as he could revel in ethereal realms, in company with the heavenly bodies. He belonged to the few elect who do not creep on the earth's surface, but who free themselves from all earthly bondage in the sublime flight of thought. He rejoiced in being exempt from cares and occupations. But though he gloried in philosophy, Judaism, which he termed the ** true wisdom," was still dearer to his heart. When he gathered the beautiful blossoms of Grecian learning, it was to twine them into a garland with which to adorn Judaism. Philo had been leading the retired life of a student for some time, when, as he bitterly remarked, an event drew him unmercifully into the whirlpool of political troubles : the miserable condition of his people had probably disturbed his contemplative life. In later years he looked back with longing upon his former occupation, and lamented that practical life had obscured his vision for intellectual things, and had materially interfered with his range of thought ; but he consoled himself with the know- ledge that in undisturbed hours he was still able to lift his mind to noble objects. Philo's philosophical researches not only furnished food for his intellect, l86 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. but helped to inspire him with true nobility of character, developing- in him a nature that regarded all acts of human folly, vulgarity, and vice as so many enigmas which he could not solve. His wife, who was justly proud of him, emulated him in the simplicity of her life. When asked by some of her brilliantly attired friends why she, who was so rich, should disdain to wear gold ornaments, she is said to have answered, "The virtue of the husband is adornment enough for the wife." Philo's contemporaries were never weary of praising his style ; so forcibly indeed did it remind them of Plato's beautiful diction that they would observe, " Plato writes like Philo, or Philo like Plato." Philo's principal aim was to harmonize the spirit of Judaism with that of the philosophy of the age, or, more rightly speaking, to show that Judaism is the truest philosophy. And this was not merely to be an intellectual exercise, but to him it was a sacred mission. He was so completely absorbed in these ideas that, as he relates of himself, he often fell into trances, when he fancied that revelations were vouchsafed to him which he could not have grasped at ordinary times. This was the man who was to present himself before the emperor, as the representative of the Alexandrian Judsean community. The heathen Alexandrians also sent a deputation, headed by Apion, to which also belonged the venom-tongued Isidorus. Not only were the envoys concerned with the privileges of the community they repre- sented, but they were pledged to raise their voices against the cruel persecution of their race. P"or the first time in history were Judaism and Paganism confronted in the lists, each of them being repre- sented by men of Greek culture and learning. Had the two forms of faith and civilization been judged by their exponents, the decision for Judaism would not have been doubtful. Philo, dignified and earnest, CH. VII. EMBASSY TO ROME. 187 seemed in himself to embody faithful search after truth, and the purest moral idealism ; whilst Apion, frivolous and sarcastic, was the very incarnation of smooth-tongued vainglory, and bore the stamp of the vanity and self-conceit of fallen Greece. But the outcome of this contest remains doubt- ful. Caligula was too passionate a partisan to be a just umpire. He hated the Judaeans because they would not recognize and worship him as their deity, and his hatred was fanned by two contemp- tible creatures, whom he had dragged from the mire and had attached to himself — the Egyptian Helicon and Apelles of Ascalon. The Judaean envoys were hardly permitted to speak when they were admitted to the imperial presence, and Caligula's first word was one of jarring reproof: "So you are the despisers of God, who will not recognize me as the deity, but who prefer worshiping a nameless one, whilst all my other subjects have accepted me as their god." The Judaean envoys declared that they had offered up three successive offerings in honor of Caligula : the first upon his accession to the throne ; the second upon his recovery from a severe illness ; and the third after his so-called victory over the Teutons. "That may be," answered Caligula, "but the offerings were made /or me and not to me; for such I do not care. And how is it," he continued, awakening the ribald merriment of his pagan audi- ence, " how is it that you do not eat pig's flesh, and upon what grounds do you hold your right of equality with the Alexandrians ? " Without waiting for a reply, he turned his attention to something- else. Later on when he dismissed the Juda an envoys, he remarked that they seemed less wicked than stupid in not being willing to acknowledge his divinity. Whilst the unfortunate ambassadors were vainly seeking to gain ground with the emperor, they were l88 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. suddenly overwhelmed with tidings that struck terror into their hearts. One of their own race burst into their presence, exclaiming, amidst uncontrollable sobs, that the Temple in the holy city had been profaned by Caligula. F'or not only were the im- perial statues to be erected in the synagogues, but also in the Temple of Jerusalem. The governor of Syria, Petronius, had received orders to enter Judaea with his legions and to turn the Sanctuary into a pagan temple. It is easy to conceive the mortal anguish of the Judaean nation when these orders became known to them. On the eve of the Feast of Tabernacles a messenger appeared in Jerusalem, who converted this feast of rejoicing into mourning. Petronius and his legions were at Accho, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but, as the rainy season was at hand, and as obstinate resistance was expected, the Roman commander resolved to await the spring before commencing active operations. Thousands of Judaeans hastened to appear before Petronius, declaring that they would rather suffer the penalty of death than allow their Temple to be desecrated. Petronius, per- plexed as to how he should carry out this mad scheme of Caligula's, consulted the members of the Royal Council, entreating of them to influence the people in his favor. But the Judaean aristocracy, and even Agrippa's own brother Aristobulus, held with the people. Petronius then sent a true state- ment of the case to the emperor, hoping that he might be induced to abandon his scheme. Mean- while he pacified the people by telling them that nothing could be effected until fresh edicts arrived from Rome, and begged of them to return to their agricultural duties, and thus to avert the possibility of a year of famine. But before Petronius' letter was in the hands of the emperor, Caligula's intentions had been frus- trated by Agrippa. The Judaean king had acquired CH. VII. AGRIPPA AND CALIGULA. 1 89 SO extraordinary an influence over Caligula that the Romans called him and Antiochus of Commagcne, his teachers in tyranny. Agrippa, who was living at that time near the person of the emperor, could not have been indifferent to the desecration of the Temple, but he was too accomplished a courtier openly to oppose this imperial caprice. On the contrary, he seemed dead to the cry of anguish that arose from his people, and only occupied in preparing, with the most lavish expenditure, a mag- nificent feast for the emperor and his favorites. But under this garb of indifference he was really working for his people's cause. Caligula, flattered by the attentions that were lavished upon him, bade Agrippa demand a boon, which should be instantly granted. His astonishment was indeed boundless when the Judcean monarch begged for the repeal of the imperial edict concerning images. He had little thought that his refined courtier would prove so unselfish a man, so pious, and so thor- oughly independent of the will of the emperor. Cunning as he was, Caligula was helplessly en- trapped, for he could not retract his pledged word. Thus he was forced to write to Petronius annulling his former decree. Meanwhile he received Petronius' letter, in which the governor detailed what difficulties he would encounter, were he to attempt to execute the orders of his master. More than this was not required to lash Caligula's pas- sionate and excitable nature into a fury. A new and stringent order was given to proceed with the introduction of the statues into the Temple of Jeru- salem. But before this order, terrible to the Judaeans and full of danger to Petronius himself, had arrived in Jerusalem, it was announced that the insane Caligula had met with his death at the hands of the Prsetorian Tribune Chereas (24 Jan., 41). These tidings came to Jerusalem on the 2 2d of Shebat (March, 41), and the day was afterwards celebrated as one of great rejoicing. 190 HISTORY OK THE JP:WS. CH. VII. Caligula's successor upon the throne of the Csesars was Claudius, a learned pedant and a fool. He owed his crown to chance, and to the diplo- macy of King" Agrippa, who had induced the re- luctant Senate to accept the choice of the Prae- torians. Rome must indeed have fallen low when a somewhat insignificant Judsean prince was allowed to speak in the Senate House, and, in some measure, to have influence in the choice of her ruler. Claudius was not ungrateful to his ally ; he lauded him before the assembled Senate, raised him to the dignity of consul, and made him king of all Palestine, for Judaea and Samaria were incorporated with the monarchy. As a remembrance of these events, the emperor ordered an inscription to be engraved on tablets of bronze, in pedantic imitation of the classical age, and coins to be struck, bearing on one side two clasped hands, with these words, " Friendship and comradeship of King Agrippa with the Senate and the Roman people." On the other side was the emperor between two figures, and the inscription : " King Agrippa, friend of the emperor." The king- dom of Judaea had thus recovered its full extent ; indeed, it had acquired even a greater area than it possessed formerly under the Hasmonaeans and Herod I. Herod II., brother and son-in-law of King Agrippa, received from Claudius the rank of Praetor, and was made prince of Chalcis, in Lebanon. The Alex- andrian Judaeans greatly benefited by the new order of things which was brought about in the vast Roman Empire by the death of Caligula. The emperor Claudius freed the Alabarch Alexander, with whom he was on friendly terms, from the imprisonment into which his predecessor had thrown him, and settled the disputes of the Alexandrians in favor of the Judaeans. Caligula's prejudice against that unfortunate community had developed CH. VII. AGRIPPA BECOMES KING. I9I their Independence, and their strength was far from being broken. Their rights and privileges were fully re-established by an edict of the new emperor, and they were placed on an equal footing with the Greek inhabitants of Egypt. The dignity of the Alabarch was restored by the emperor, and this was most important to the Judaeans, for it assured them of the leadership of one of their own race, and made them independent of the Roman officials. It was during this reign that Philo gave the wealth of his learning to a wide circle of readers, and was instrumental in bringing Judaean-Greek culture to its zenith. Claudius extended his good- will to the Judaeans of the entire Roman Empire, granting them complete religious freedom, and pro- tecting them from the interference of the pagans. When Agrippa, laden with honors, left Rome for Judaea to take possession of his kingdom, his subjects remarked that some great change was manifest In him, and that the stirring revolu- tion In Rome, by which a headstrong emperor had been dethroned In favor of a weak one, had deeply impressed their own monarch. The friv- olous Agrippa returned an earnest-minded man ; the courtier had given place to the patriot ; the pleasure-loving prince to the conscientious mon- arch, who was fully aware of what he owed his nation. The Herodlan nature had, In fact, been entirely subdued by the Hasmonaean. For the last time, Judaea enjoyed under his reign a short span of undisturbed happiness ; and his subjects, won by his generous affection, which even risked forfeiting the good-will of Rome In their cause, repaid him with untiring devotion, the bitterest enemies of his scepter becoming his ardent supporters. Historians do not weary of praising Agrlppa's loving adher- ence to Judaism ; It seemed as if he were endeav- oring to rebuild what had been cast down by Herod. He mixed freely with the people when they carried 192 HISTORY OF THE JKWS. CH. VII. the first fruits into the Temple, and bore his own offering of fruit or grain to the Sanctuary. He re-established the old law that obliged the king to read the book of Deuteronomy in the Court of the Temple at the close of each year of release. Facing the congregation, Agrippa performed this act for the first time in the autumn of the year 42, and when he came to the verse, " From amongst your brethren shall you choose a king," he burst into a passion of tears, for he was painfully aware of his Idumaean descent, and knew that he was unworthy of being a king of Judaea. But the assembled multitude, and even the Pharisees, exclaimed with enthusiasm : " Thou art our brother ; thou art our brother ! " Agrippa's careful government made itself felt throughout the entire community. Without doubt the Synhedrion, under the presidency of Gamaliel I. (ha-Zaken, the elder), the worthy grandson of Hillel, was permitted to take the management of home affairs into its own hands. The presidency acquired greater importance under Gamaliel than it had enjoyed before ; for the Synhedrion, modeled upon the political constitution of the country, par- took somewhat of a monarchical character. The consent of the president was required for the inter- polation of a leap year, and all letters or mandates addressed to near or distant communities were sent in his name. The formulae of these letters, which have in some instances been handed down to us, are extremely interesting, both in contents and form, for they prove that all Judsean com- munities, as well as their representatives, acknowl- edged the supreme authority of the Synhedrion. Gamaliel would address a foreign community through the pen of his accomplished secretary, Jochanan, in these terms : " To our brethren in Upper and Lower Galilee, greeting : We make known to you that the time has arrived for the ingathering of the tithes of your olive yards." " To our brethren, the exiles CH. VII. LIBERAL LAWS. 1 93 in Babylon, Media, Greece (Ionia), and to all other exiles, greeting : We make known to you that as in this season the lambs are still very small, and the doves have not yet their full-grown wings, the spring being very backward this season, it pleases me and my colleagues to prolong the year by thirty days." Many excellent laws emanated from Gamaliel ; they were principally directed against the abuses that had crept in, or were aimed at promoting the welfare of the whole community. It was the true spirit of Hillel that pervaded the laws framed by Gamaliel for the intercourse between the Judaeans and the heathens. The heathen poor were permitted to glean the fields in the wake of the reapers, and were treated exactly like the Judaean poor, and the pagans were given the peace greetings upon their own festivals when they were following their own rites. The poor in all towns of mixed population received equal treatment ; they were helped in time of distress, their sick were nursed, their dead were honorably treated, their sorrowing ones were com- forted, whether they were pagans or Judaeans. In these ordinances, so full of kindly feeling towards the heathen, the influence of Agnppa is plainly visible. Rome and Judaea had for the moment laid aside their mutual antipathy, and their intercourse was characterized by love and forbearance. The generosity of the emperor towards the Judaeans went so far that he severely punished some thought- less Greek youths in the town of Dora for attempting to introduce his statues into the synagogues. The governor Petronius was ordered to be strict in the prevention of such desecration. Agrippa had inherited from his grandfather Herod the wish to be popular among the Greeks. As Herod had sent presents to Athens and other Greek and Ionian towns, so his grandson conferred a great benefit upon the degenerate city, once 194 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. motner of the arts, a benefit which her citizens did not easily forget. He also showered favors upon the inhabitants of Caesarea, the city that Herod had raised as a rival of Jerusalem, and upon the Greeks of the seaboard Sebaste, who lived in their own special quarter. These recipients of his benefits exerted themselves to give proofs of their gratitude. The people of Sebaste raised statues to his three daughters, and struck coins in his honor, bearing the inscription — " To the great king Agrippa, friend of the emperor." The last years of this monarch's reign were happy for his nation, both within and without the kingdom of Judaea. They were like the rosy flush in the evening sky that precedes, not the dawn of day, but the blackness of night. In some respects they call to mind the reign of King Josiah in the earlier history of the nation, when the king- dom enjoyed tranquillity at home and independence abroad, with no dearth of intellectual activity. Philo visited Jerusalem during Agrippa's reign, and was able to take part in the people's joy at the revocation of Caligula's edicts. Never before had the first fruits been carried into the Temple with greater solemnity or with more heartfelt rejoicing. To the bright strains of musical instru- ments the people streamed into the Sanctuary with their offerings, where they were received by the most distinguished of their race. A psalm was then chanted, which described how the worshipers had passed from sorrow into gladness. It was at this time that a great queen, followed by her numerous retinue, arrived in Jerusalem, she having renounced paganism for Judaism, thus filling to the brim the cup of gladness of the once per- secuted but now honored race. The happy era of Agrippa's reign was, how- ever, not to be of long duration. Although he had gained the complete confidence of the emperor, the Roman dignitaries looked upon him with sus- CH. VII. AGRIPPA FORTIFIES JERUSALEM. 1 95 picion, and beheld in each step made by the Judcean king some traces of disaffection ; and they were not far wrong. For, however much Agrippa might coquet with Rome, he w^as yet determined to make Judsea capable of resisting that great power, should an encounter, which he deemed inevitable, occur between the two. His people should not be dependent upon the caprice of one individual. Thus he resolved to strengthen Jerusalem. He chose for this purpose the suburb of Bezetha, to the northeast of the city, and there he ordered powerful fortifications to be built. They were to constitute a defense for the fortress of Antonia, which lay between Bezetha and Jerusalem. He applied to Rome for the necessary permission, which was readily granted by Claudius, who could deny him nothing, and the Roman favorites who would have opposed him were silenced by gifts. The fortifications were commenced, but their com- pletion was interrupted by the governor of Syria, Vibius Marsus. He saw through Agrippa's scheme, plainly told the emperor of the dangers that would surely menace Rome if Jerusalem could safely set her at defiance, and succeeded in wringing from Claudius the revocation of his permission. Agrippa was forced to obey, not being in the position to openly offer resistance. But at heart he determined upon weakening the Roman sway in Judsea. To attain these ends, he allied himself secretly with those princes with whom he was connected by marriage or on terms of friendly relationship, and invited them to a conference at Tiberias, under the pretext of meeting for general amusement and relaxation. There came at his call to the Galilean capital Antiochus, king of Commagene, whose son Epiphanes was affianced to Agrippa's youngest daughter ; Samsigeranus, king of Emesa, whose daughter Jatape was married to Agrippa's brother Aristobulus ; then Cotys, king of Armenia Minor, 196 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. Polemon, prince of Cilicla, and lastly, Herod, Agrippa's brother, prince of Chalcis. All these princes owed their positions to Agrippa, and were therefore liable to lose them at the accession of the next emperor or at the instigation of some influential person at the court of Claudius. But Marsus, suspicious of this understanding between so many rulers, and distrustful of the cause that brought them together, suddenly presented himself in their midst, and, with the ancient Roman blunt- ness, bade them return each man to his own city. So tremendous was the power of Rome, that at one word from an underling of the emperor the meeting was annulled. But the energy and perseverance of Agrippa would probably have spared Judsea from any possible humiliation, and assured her future safety, had his life been prolonged ; he met, how- ever, with an unexpected death at the age of fifty-four. Judaea's star sank with that monarch, who died, like Josiah, the last great king of the pre- exilian age, a quarter of a century before the de- struction of his State. It soon became evident that the Greek inhabit- ants of Palestine had but dissembled their true feelings in regard to King Agrippa. Forgetful of that monarch's benefits, the Syrians and Greeks of the city of Csesarea, and of the seaboard of Sebaste, solaced themselves by heaping abuse upon his memory, and by offering up thank-offerings to Charon for his death. The Roman soldiery quar- tered in those towns made common cause with the Greeks, and carried the statues of Agrippa's daugh- ters into brothels. Claudius was not indifferent to the insults offered to his dead friend's memory. He was, on the con- trary, anxious to raise Agrippa's son, Agrippa II., to the throne of Judaea. But in this he was opposed by his two all-powerful favorites, Pallas and Nar- cissus, on the plea of the prince's youth (he was CH. VII. EMBASSY TO ROME. I97 seventeen years of age), and Judaea was thus allowed to sink once more into a Roman province. However, out of affection and respect to the dead king, the emperor gave the Judaian governor Cus- pius Fadus a somewhat independent position in regard to the Syrian governor Vibius Marsus, who had always been hostile to Agrippa and the Ju- daeans. It was his soldiery who had insulted the memory of the Judsean monarch, and for this cowardly action they were to be punished and exiled to Pontus. They managed, however, to extort a pardon from the emperor, and remained in Judaea, a circumstance which contributed not a little to excite the bitterest feelings of the national party, which they fully returned. They could ill control their hatred of the Judaeans, stinging the latter into retaliation. Companies of freebooters under daring leaders prepared, as after the death of Herod, to free their country from the yoke of Rome. But Fadus was prepared for this rising. It was his desire to strengthen the Roman rule in Judaea, and to give it the same importance that it had had before the reign of Agrippa ; and to this end he attempted to keep the selection of the high priest and the sacred robes in his own hands. But in this he met resistance both in the person of the high priest and at the hands of Agrippa's brother, Herod II. Jerusalem was so greatly excited by these pro- ceedings that not only did the governor Fadus appear within the city, but he was accompanied by Caius Cassius Longinus at the head of his troops. Herod and his brother Aristobulus begged for a truce of hostilities, as they were anxious to send envoys to Rome. This they were allowed to do, only on the condition that they surrendered them- selves as hostages for the preservation of peace. Having willingly complied, an embassy, consisting of four men — Cornelius, Tryphon, Dorotheus, and igS HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VII. John — started for Rome. When they arrived in that city they were introduced to the emperor by the young Agrippa. Claudius, still faithful to his old affection for the Herodians, granted the Ju- daeans full right to follow their own laws, and gave Herod permission to choose the high priest of the Sanctuary. Taking instant advantage of this permission, Herod raised Joseph, of the house of Camith, to the high priesthood in the place of Elionai, his brother's choice. To a certain extent Herod II. may be regarded as king of Judsea, but he exerted no influence upon the course of political events. All legal power was vested in the hands of the governor ; the Synhedrion lost, under the sway of his successor, the power which it had re- gained under Agrippa. Fadus was confronted with a rising of another nature during his governorship. A certain Theudas appeared as prophet or messiah, and was followed by four hundred disciples, for the messianic redemp- tion was quickly growing into a necessity for the nation. To give proof of his power he declared that he would divide the waters of the Jordan, and would lead his followers safe across the bed of the river. But when his band of disciples approached the riverside, carrying with them much of their worldly possessions, they were confronted by a troop of Fadus's cavalry soldiers, who slew some, made others prisoners, and decapitated their leader. Shortly after these events Fadus was recalled from Jerusalem, and his place was taken by Tiberius Julius Alexander, son of the Alabarch Alexander, nephew of the Judasan philosopher Philo. Tiberius, who had espoused paganism, bore already the dignity of a Roman knight. The Emperor believed doubtless that in naming a Judsean of a distinguished house as governor over the land, he was giving proof of his friendliness to the nation. He did not imagine that their sensitive natures would be vio- CH. VII. INSURRECTION OF THE ZEALOTS. 1 99 lently opposed to the fact of being governed by a renegade. The people seem indeed to have been most uncomfortable under the rule of Tiberius ; the zealots lifted up their heads and excited an insur- rection. They were led by Jacob and Simon and the sons of the zealot Judah, but no details of this revolt are extant. To judge by the severity of the sentence passed upon the ringleaders by the gov- ernor, it must have been of a grave character, for the two brothers suffered crucifixion, the most de- grading form of capital punishment amongst the Romans. Tiberius Alexander remained only two years at his post. He was afterwards named gov- ernor of Egypt, and exercised considerable influence in the choice of the emperor. Herod II., king of Chalcis, titular king of Judsea, died at this time (48), and with him the third gene- ration of Herodians sank into the grave. CHAPTER VIII. SPREAD OF THE JUD^AN RACE, AND OF JUDAISM. Distribution of the Judaeans in the Roman Empire and in Parthia — Relations of the various Judaean Colonies to the Synhedrion — Judasan Bandits in Naarda — Heathen Attacks upon Judaism — Counter Attacks upon Heathenism by Judaean Writers — The Judaean Sibyls — The Anti-heathen Literature — The Book of Wisdom — The Allegorists — Philo's Aims and Philosophical System — Proselytes — The Royal House of Adiabene — The Proselyte Queen Helen — The Apostle Paul— His Character — Change in his Attitude towards the Pharisees — His Activity as a Conversionist — His Treatment of the Law of Moses — The Doctrines of Peter — Judaic-Christians and Heathen-Christians, 40—49 C. E. Round the very cradle of the Judaean race there had rung prophetic strains, telHng of endless wanderings and dispersions. No other people had ever heard such alarming predictions, and they were being ful- filled in all their literal horror. There was hardly a corner in the two great predominant kingdoms of that time, the Roman and the Parthian, in which Judaeans were not living, and where they had not formed themselves into a religious community. The shores of the great midland sea, and the outlets of all the principal rivers of the old world, of the Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Danube, were peopled with Judaeans. A cruel destiny seemed to be ever thrusting them away from their central home. Yet this dispersion was the work of Providence and was to prove a blessing. The continuance of the Judaean race was thus assured. Down-trodden and persecuted in one country, they fled to another, where the old faith, which became ever dearer to them, found a new home. Seeds were scattered here and there, destined to carry far and wide the knowledge of God and the teachings of pure CH. VIII. THE DISPERSED JUD^EANS. 20I morality. Just as the Greek colonies kindled in various nations the love of art and culture, and the Roman settlements gave rise in many lands to communities governed by law, so had the far wider dispersion of the oldest civilized people con- tributed to overthrow the errors and combat the sensual vices of the heathen world. In spite of being thus scattered, the members of the Judaean people were not completely divided from one another ; they had a common center of union in the Temple of Jerusalem and in the Synhedrion which met in the hall of hewn stone, and to these the dispersed communities clung with loving hearts. Towards them their looks were ever fondly directed, and by sending their gifts to the Temple they continued to participate, at least by their contributions, in the sacrificial worship. From the Synhedrion they re- ceived their code of laws, which they followed the more willingly as it was not forced upon them. The Synhedrion, from time to time, sent deputations to the different communities, both far and near, to acquaint them with the most important decisions. The visits paid to the Temple by the Judseans who lived out of Palestine, strengthened the bond of unity, and these visits must have been of frequent occurrence, for they necessitated the creation of many places of worship in Jerusalem where the vari- ous foreign Judseans met for prayer. The capital contained synagogues of the Alexandrians, Cyre- nians. Libertines, Elymseans, and Asiatics. One can form some idea of the vast numbers of Judaeans exist- ing at that period if one considers that Egypt alone, from the Mediterranean to the Ethiopian boundary, contained nearly a million. In the neighboring country of Cyrenaica, there were likewise many Judaeans, some having been forcibly transplanted thither from Egypt, whilst others were voluntary emigrants. In many parts of Syria, and especially in its capital, Antioch, the Judaeans formed a con- 202 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. siderable portion of the population. The kings of Syria who succeeded Antiochus Epiphanes had reinstated them in all their rights, of which the half- insane Epiphanes had robbed them. One of these kings had even given them some of the utensils taken from the Temple, and these were preserved in their synagogue. About ten thousand Judaeans lived at Damascus, and one of their nobles was made ethnarch over them by the Nabathaean king, Aretas Philodemus, just as in Alexandria one of their most distinguished members was elected chief of the community. To the great capital of the world, Rome, the point of attraction for the ambi- tious and the grasping, the discontented and the visionaries, the Judaeans returned in such masses after their expulsion by Tiberius, that when the Emperor Claudius determined, from some un- known cause, upon expelling them again, he was only deterred, by fear of their great numbers, from endeavoring to carry out his intention. Mean- while he forbade their religious meetings. Towards the end of his reign, however, on account of some disturbances occasioned by a certain Christian apostle, Chrestus, they were probably, but only in part, banished from Rome. Even greater than in Europe, Syria and Africa was the number of Judaeans in the Parthian Empire. They were the descendants of former exiles, who owned large tracts of country in Mesopotamia and Babylonia. Two youths from Naarda (Nahardea on the Euphrates) called Asinai (Chasinai) and Anilai (Chanilai) founded in the vicinity of that town a robber settlement, which spread terror along the bordering countries. Just as Naarda and Nisibis became the central points for the countries of the Euphrates, there arose in every land a central nucleus from which Judaean colonies spread them- selves out into neighboring lands, from Asia Minor on the one side, towards the Black Sea on the other, CH. VIII. JUD.^ANS AND HEATHENS. 203 towards Greece and the Islands. Athens, Corinth, Thessalonica, and Philippi contained Judaean com- munities. There is no doubt that from Rome Judaean colonies went forth westward to the south of France and Spain. The effect produced by the Judseans upon the heathens was at first repellent. Their peculiar mode of living, their dress and their religious views, caused them to be considered as strange, enigmat- ical, mysterious beings, who at one moment inspired awe, and at another derision and contempt. So thorough was the opposition between the Judaeans and the heathens that it manifested itself in all their actions. Everything that was holy in the eyes of the heathens was looked upon with horror by the Judaeans, whilst objects of indifference to the former were considered sacred by the latter. The with- drawal of the Judaeans from the repasts enjoyed in common by their fellow-citizens, their repugnance to intermarriages with the heathens, their abhorrence of the flesh of swine, and their abstinence from warm food on the Sabbath, were considered as the outcome of a perverse nature, whilst their keeping aloof from intimate intercourse with any but their own co- religionists was deemed a proof of their enmity towards mankind in general. The serious nature of the Judaeans, which prevented their participation in childish amusements and mimic combats, appeared to those around them the sign of a gloomy dispo- sition, which could find no pleasure in the bright and the beautiful. Superficial persons, therefore, re- garded Judaism only as a barbarous superstition, which instilled hatred towards the generality of men, whilst the more thoughtful and discerning were filled with admiration by the pure and spiritual worship of one God, by the affection and sympathy which bound the Judaeans together, and by the vir- tues of chastity, temperance and fortitude which characterized them. 204 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. Paganism, with the immoral Hfe which sprang from it, stood revealed in all its nakedness to the keen sight of the Judaeans. The dreary idolatry of the heathen, with its fabulous mythology which made divine nature even lower than the human, the mad- ness which allowed wicked emperors to be worshiped as gods, the sensuality which had prevailed since the fall of Greece and the closer connection of the Romans with demoralized nations, the daily spec- tacle of evil lives and broken marriage vows, the bac- chanalian intoxication of superstition, unbelief, and bestialities, fostered the pride of the Judaeans in their own spiritual and intellectual possessions, and urged them to make the superiority of Judaism over heath- enism manifest. In places where the Grecian lan- guage facilitated exchange of thought, as in Egypt, Asia Minor and Greece, there was considerable mental friction between the Judaeans and the heath- ens. Judaism, as it were, summoned paganism to appear before the tribunal of truth, and there placed its own sublime faith beside the low, degrading forms of belief of its adversary. The Judaeans were deeply anxious to impart the burning convictions that filled their hearts to the blind, deluded heathens, and to attain that object, their religion being hated by the latter, some of the most cultivated among the Judaeans had recourse to a sort of pious fraud, by which heathen poets and soothsayers were made to bear witness to the beauty and grandeur of Judaism. Skilful imitations in verse, enunciating Judsean doctrines, were placed by Judaean-Grecian writers in the mouth of the mist- shrouded singer Orpheus, and introduced among the strains of Sophocles, the tragic poet who had celebrated the all-powerful gods. When Rome had extended her empire far and wide, and the legends of the prophetic Sibyls had become known through many lands, Judaean poets hastened to make the latter stand sponsors to tenets and views which CH. VIII. THE JUD^AN SIBYL. 205 they durst not proclaim themselves, or which, if given in their own name, would have obtained no hearing. In an oracular form the Sibyl was made to reveal the deep meaning of Judaism, to stir the hearts of the people by pictures of the awful result of infidelity to God, and to offer to nations engaged in bloody conflict the olive branch of peaceful amity, opening out to them bright prospects of the happier times, predicted by the Seers, to those who believed in the eternal God of Judaism ; and the Sibyl spoke in prophetic strains of the glorious future, when all the nations of the earth would rejoice in the bless- ings of the Messianic kingdom. "Unhappy Greece, cease proudly to exalt thyself; offer prayers for help to the immortal and lofty One, and take heed of thy ways. Serve the mighty God, so that thou also mayest find thy portion among the good when the end will have come and the day of judg- ment, according to the will of God, will rise up before man. Then will the teeming earth give abundantly to mortals the fairest fruits of the vine and the olive and choicest nourishing seeds. Also sweet honey dropping from heaven, and trees with their fruit, and fat sheep. Likewise oxen and lambs and the kids of the goat. For them rivers of milk will flow, sweet and white. The cities will be filled with merchandise, the earth will be rich, and there will be no more war or ifearful sound of fighting. Nor will the earth, loud groaning, quake and be rent. War will cease, and there will be no drought upon the lands, no more famine or fruit-destroying hail. But great peace will reign over all the world, and to the end of time each king will be the other's friend, and under one law will the people of the whole world be governed by the Eternal God, enthroned in the starry heavens — one law for all weak, pitiable men ; for He is one God, and there is no other, and the wicked He will cast into the flames." The aim of a long series of prose writings of the Judsean-Grecian school was to set forth the futil- ity and defects of paganism on the one hand, and on the other to display Judaism in its most favor- able light, and thus to induce the heathen to become acquainted with the tenets of the latter. Heathen kings who had been convinced that idolatry was empty and vain, and that by Judaism, on the con- trary, truth was revealed were pointed out as ex- amples. "The Book of Wisdom " was even more decided and vigorous in its denunciations of paganism than 206 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VHI. the Sibylline writings. Its unknown author grave with philosophical acumen, but in a poetical garb, a truthful exposition of idolatry, showed it to be the cause of vice and immorality, and then, in marked contrast to these dark shadows, made Ju- daism shine with increased purity and luster. It was the wisdom of Judaism, embodied, as it were, in the wise King Solomon, that presented these views, and in his name, turning to the monarchs of the earth (the Roman governors), rebukes their shameless self-deification. " Love righteousness, ye rulers of the earth," exclaims the Wisdom of Sol- omon, " recognize the Lord in goodness, and seek Him in simplicity of heart" (Book of Wisdom, i. i). According to this author, the invention of idols was the cause of lasclviousness, and leads to the destruc- tion of life. Idolatry did not exist from the begin- ning, neither will it last forever. It arose through the vanity and ignorance of man, and would endure but a short time. A father, suddenly plunged into deepest grief by the death of a child, perhaps made for himself an image of the latter ; by degrees he worshiped the lifeless figure as a god, and insisted upon the observance by his dependants of mystical rites in its honor. In the course of time this godless practice became law, and images, by the order of despots, received the worship of the people. In the absence of the monarch, when he could not be personally adored by his subjects, the tyrant was flattered by the incense offered to his image. The ambition of the artist also fostered the growth of idolatry among the ignorant masses. To please the potentates of the earth he strove to make his images as beautiful as possible, and the public, dazzled by the splendor and grace of the work, worshiped as gods those whom they previously rev- erenced as men. Such beautiful productions of art became a snare to those whom misfortune or tyranny had enslaved, and induced them to deify carved CH. VIII. THE BOOK OF WISDOM. 207 Stone and wood, and to bestow on them the uncom- municable name of God. Not alone do the people err in their religious creed, but they live in constant strife with one another and call it peace ; infanticide is celebrated as a rite, they observe dark, myste- rious ceremonies, and are guilty of unchastity. Each one plays the part of spy on the other, or wounds his friend in his dearest honor. All, with- out distinction, thirst for blood, love plunder, and practice cunning, perjury, deceit, ingratitude, and every description of impurity. For the worship of vain idols is the beginning, cause, and end of every evil thing. " For health he calleth upon that which is weak, for life prayeth to that which is dead, for aid humbly beseecheth that which hath least means to help" (Book of Wisdom, xiii. i8). After the author has thus shown the vanity of idolatry, he attempts to describe the fundamental truths of Judaism : " There is no God but Him whom the Jews adore. Divine wisdom preserved the first-born, saved the righteous (Noah) from the flood, upheld the righteous (Abraham) in innocence before God, deUvered the holy seed (the Judsean people) from the oppression of the nations, filled the soul of the servant of God (Moses), who appeared before kings with terrible signs and wonders. Israel is the upright one whom God has chosen. He possesses the knowledge of the Divine Being, and may call himself the Son of God, who in His mercy sustains and upholds him." These righteous ones will have eternal life. When Israel is persecuted by the rulers of the earth, be- cause his path lies apart from theirs, and he condemns their godless ways, turns from them as unclean, and calls God his Father ; when the nations of the earth torture him and put him to a shameful death — these are only trials imposed by God on His chosen one, to prove him and make him worthy of His grace. He tries him like gold in the furnace, and accepts him as a pure offering. Israel shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their God shall reign forever. 208 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. " Then will the upright one stand firmly before his oppressors. They will be troubled with great fear ; they will be amazed at his glorious salvation, and repenting they will say, 'This was he whom we had in derision, and of whom we made a laughing-stock. Igno- rantly we accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honor. Andnowheis numbered among the children of God and his lot is among the saints. We strayed from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not shine for us.' Israel was the instru- ment through which God gave the world the undying light of the law. In all things did the Lord magnify His people and glorify them ; He abandoned them not, but assisted them in every time and place." (Book of Wisdom.) Like the Babylonian Isaiah, the Alexandrian- Judaean sage contemplated his ideal in Israel, of whom a noble mission was required, and who would hereafter shine in glory. Whilst the Alexandrian Judaeans were absorbed in Grecian literature and philosophy, and were using that melodious language as a weapon against paganism and the immorality it fostered, they were carried beyond the object they had in view. Their desire was to make Judaism ac- ceptable to the cultivated Greeks, but in follow- ing out that design it was, in some degree, lost to themselves. Greek conceptions had so com- pletely taken possession of their thoughts that at last they came to find in the teachings of Judaism the current speculations of the Greeks. The faith that they had inherited was, however, still dear to them, and they managed, through sophistical means, to deceive themselves into a belief of the genuine- ness of their exposition. The Holy Scripture could not, indeed, always offer apposite passages to the prevailing philosophy, but the Judsean-Alexandrian authors knew how to help themselves out of that difficulty. They followed the example of Greek writers, who found their own views of the world in the poems of Homer, or put them there, and to accomplish that feat, employed a peculiar kind of sophistical word-pictures. Thus the Judaean think- ers of that period, in their interpretations of the Holy Scriptures, had recourse to allegory, and in- CH. VIII. THE ALLEGORISTS. SOQ Stead of the plain, natural meaning of a work, often gave it a different and seemingly higher import. Starting with the assumption that the Scriptures cannot always receive a literal explanation without the divine glory's being tarnished and many biblical characters being degraded, they resorted to the arts of allegory and metaphor. This method be- came so general that even the masses lost all pleasure in the simple stories of the Holy Scrip- tures, and took more delight in artificial explana- tions than in the plain lessons and sublime laws of their sacred books. The pious men, who were wont to explain the Scriptures on the Sabbath, were obliged, in compliance with the taste of the time, to allegorize both the history and the lessons contained in them. One result of this method was the indifference that manifested itself among the cultivated Judaeans of Alexandria to the prac- tice of the religion of their fathers. Allegory un- dermined the ramparts that fenced the Law. If the latter was only the garment in which philo- sophical ideas were robed, if the Sabbath was merely intended to record the power of uncreated divinity, and the rite of circumcision was only meant to show the necessity of placing a curb on the passions, it would be sufficient to understand and adopt the ideas underlying those forms. Of what use would be the practice of the latter? From indifference to the practice of the laws to the desertion of Judaism itself there was only one step, and thus can be explained the apostasy to paganism of some Judaeans who were unable to withstand the difficulties and constant pressure they had to encounter. It was also among the Alex- andrian Judaeans that the conflict between science and faith first appeared. The indifference towards Judaism was combated, indeed, by many who had not wholly given them- selves up to Greek culture. Philo, the greatest 2IO HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. genius which Alexandrian Judaism produced, op- posed the kikewarm spirit and the feeHngs of con- tempt which had grown up against the practice of the Law. In his elevated and inspired diction he urged the obligation of adhering to the letter of the Law, and induced his co-religionists to regard it again with love and reverence. Philo indeed shared some of the errors and prejudices of his contempor- aries, but with his clear intelligence, he soared above the mists which enthroned them. He likewise made exaggerated use of the allegorical method employed by his predecessors, and agreed with them in apply- ing it to the entire Pentateuch, or at least to the greater part of its history and laws. To carry out this metaphorical line of scriptural interpretation he devised symbolic numbers, explained Hebrew by Greek words, and from one and the same sentence deduced different and opposite conclusions. To Philo allegorical exposition became almost a neces- sity. Had he not already found it in use, he would doubtless have invented it. He wished to give the sanction of Holy Writ to the great thoughts which were partly the produc- tions of his own rich mind, partly adopted from the philosophical schools of the Academy, the Stoics and the Neo-Pythagoreans. Sharing, and indeed, surpassing in perversity the allegorical explana- tions he found in vogue, he departed from them just in that essential point which told against the necessity of the practice of the Law, and in that lay his chief importance. He expresses himself with decision and force against those who, satisfied with the spiritual meaning contained in the Law, are indifferent to the Law itself. He calls them super- ficial and thoughtless, acting as though they lived in a desert, or as incorporeal beings who knew neither of town nor village nor dwelling, or who, in fact, entertained no intercourse with human beings, despising what is dear to mankind, and seeking CH. VIII. PHILO S PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM. 211 only abstract spiritual truths. The holy word, how- ever, while teaching- us to seek out diligently the deepest spiritual meaning of the Law, does not cancel our obligation of adhering to customs introduced by inspired men who were in all things infinitely greater than ourselves. Shall we, because we know the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath, neglect its prescribed observance ? *' Shall we," he exclaims, " make use of fire on the Sabbath, till the ground, carry burdens, plead in courts of justice, enforce the payment of debts, and, in fact, transact all our usual daily business ? Shall we, because a festival symbolizes the peace of the soul, and is intended as an expression of gratitude to God, cease to observe the festival itself? Or shall we give up the rite of circumcision now that we are acquainted .with its symbolic significance ? In that case we should like- wise renounce our reverence for the sanctity of the Temple and abandon many religious observances. But, on the contrary, both the inner truth contained in the Law, and the Law itself, should be equally prized — the one as the soul, the other as the body. Just as we take care of the body, looking upon it as the habitation of the soul, so also should we value the letter of the Law. By strict observance of the Law we shall attain a clearer insight into its deepest meaning, and shall likewise escape the remarks and reproaches of the people." It is in the Hebrew Scriptures, according to Phllo, that the most profound wisdom is contained. All that is taught by the sublimest philosophy the Ju- daeans found in their precepts and customs — the knowledge of the eternal God, the vanity of idols, and the universal laws of humanity and kindness. " Is not the highest honor due," he exclaims, " to those laws which teach the rich to share their wealth with the needy, which console the poor by enabling them to look forward to the time when they will no longer beg at the rich man's door, but will have 212 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIIl. recovered their alienated property ; for, at the open ing of the seventh year, prosperity would return again to the widow and the orphan, and would restore to well-being those whom fortune had disin- herited ?" _ In opposition to the abuse hurled against Judaism by a Lysimachus and an Apion, Philo brings forward the spirit of humanity which breathes through the Judaean Law, and which affects even the treatment of animals and plants. "And yet, though Judaism is founded in truth on love, these miserable sycophants accuse it of misanthropy and egotism." In order to ensure a better comprehension of the Judaean ethics by the cynics and lawbreakers of his own race, as also by the Greeks, who had only a false conception of Judaism, Philo arranged his writings so that they should form a kind of philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch, with the further object that the truths of Judaism might be brought within the province of philosophy. But if, on the one hand, Philo stood firmly on Ju- daean ground, on the other he was no less imbued with the dogmas of the Grecian schools, which ran counter to the former, and he seems to have been equally swayed by the spirit of Judaism and that of Greece. Vainly he attempted to bring the contra- dictory ideas into harmony. They were so com- pletely opposed from their very inception that they could not be reconciled. To solve the difficulty between the conflicting views of a creating God and a perfect deity who does not come into contact with matter, Philo's system takes a middle course. God created first the spiritual world of ideas, which were not merely the archetypes of all future creations, but at the same time active powers which formed the latter. Through these spiritual powers which sur- round God like a train of servitors. He works indi- rectly in the world. Spiritual power acting, as it were, intermediately between God and the world is, CH. VIII. PHILO S PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM. 213 according to Philo, the Logos, or creative reason, the divine wisdom, the spirit of God, the source of all strength. In Philo's more mystical than philo- sophical description, the Logos is the first-born son of God, who, standing on the border-land of the finite and infinite, links both together. He is neither uncreated like God, nor created like the things that are finite. The Logos is the prototype of the uni- verse, the delegate of God, whose behests it com- municates to the world, the interpreter who reveals His will and constantly accomplishes it, the arch- angel who shows forth his works, the high priest and intercessor between the world and God. Early Christianity made use of this doctrine of the Logos in order to assume a philosophic aspect. The princely philosopher of the house of the Alabarchs combated the Greek and Roman pagan- ism, steeped in vice and bestiality. His exposition of the Judaean Law was designed to darken still more, by comparison with the pure light of Judaism, the shadows of idolatry, the sexual looseness, frivol- ity, vanity and corruption which existed in the Gre- cian-Roman world. He tried to show how false were the accusations hurled against Judaism, and to make known the sublime grandeur and beauty of its tenets. His principal works were written for his own people and co-religionists, though he frequently addressed those who stood outside that circle. Against the few laws of humanity which the Greeks boasted to have possessed from ancient times, as, for example that of granting fuel to any one requir- ing it, or of showing a wayfarer the right path, Philo could have no difficulty in enumerating a long array of benevolent duties contained in Scripture or trans- mitted by word of mouth. At the head of unwritten laws he placed Hillel's golden saying, "What is hateful to yourself do not unto others." Judaism does not merely forbid any one to refuse fire or water, but commands that what the poor and feeble 2 14 HISTORY OF TIIK JEWS. CH. VIII. require shall be given to them. It prohibits the use of false weights and measures, the coinage of false money. It does not allow children to be taken from their parents, or wives to be separated from their husbands, even when they have been legally acquired as slaves. Even towards animals the duty of mercy is impressed upon man. "What, in com- parison to these," he cries to the Greeks, " are the few laws descending from primeval times, of which you boast so much ?" In the following tone of mockery Philo answered mahcious accusations against the Lawgiver : " Yes, verily, Moses must have been a sorcerer, not only to have preserved a whole people, and supplied them abundantly whilst they were journeying- through many nations, exposed to the danger of hunger and thirst, and ignorant of the way they were pursuing, but likewise to have made them, in spite of their mutinous spirit, which often broke out against himself, docile and pliant." Of the three great moralists who followed each other within a century, Hillel the Babylonian, Jesus of Nazareth, and Philo the Alexandrian, it was the last who in all things, great and small, upheld most strenuously the glory of Judaism. He was superior to them likewise in beauty of style and in depth of thought, whilst he was animated with equally fervent convictions. The first two simply created an im- pulse, but it was through their disciples that their ideas, variously transformed, were introduced into a larger circle ; whereas Philo, by his own eloquent writings, made an important and lasting effect. His works were perhaps read by cultivated heathens even more than by Jadseans, though all were affected by the warmth and giOw which pervaded everything he wrote about God, Moses, and the spirit of the Law. Philo and the Alexandrian sages continued to promote the great work of the prophets Isaiah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah, and laid bare all the un- reasonableness, the instability, the perversion and CH. VIII. PROSELYTES. 2 1 5 immorality of the heathen religions. The trans- parent, shimmering ether with which the Greeks invested Olympus, these writers resolved into mists and vapors. Greeks and Romans, who felt deeply on the subject, were moved to turn with contempt from a religion which not only gave so unworthy a representation of the Divinity, but actually seemed to sanctify immorality by the example set before them in the history of their deities. Like most oriental people, the heathens felt the need of re- ligion, and those who were searching for true and elevated teaching embraced Judaism, which was daily being brought more and more home to them in the Greek translations of Judsean writings through Greek-Alexandrine literature, and also through intercourse with cultivated Judaeans. During the last ten years which preceded the destruction of the Judsean State, there were more proselytes than there had been at any other time. Philo relates from his own experience that in his native country many heathens, when they embraced Judaism, not only changed their faith but their lives, which were henceforth conspicuous by the practice of the virtues of moderation, gentleness and humanity. " Those who left the teachings in which they had been educated, because they were replete with lying inventions and vanities, became sincere worshipers of the truth, and gave them- selves up to the practice of the purest piety." Above all, the women, whose gentle feelings were offended by the impurity of the mythological stories, seemed attracted towards the childlike and sublime scenes in Biblical history. The greater part of the women in Damascus were converted to Judaism, and it is related that in Asia Minor there were also many female proselytes. Some over-eager Judseans may have traveled with the intention of making converts, as was proved in the story of the Roman patrician Fulvia. 2l6 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. It was by similar zeal for conversion that the Judaean faith was introduced into an Asiatic court, the members of which remained steadfast adherents to Judaism during several generations. Adiabene, a province on the banks of the Tigris, situated where once lay the Assyrian kingdom, was governed by a royal pair, Monobaz and Helen. It was a small, but not unimportant state, and although it touched the great domains of Rome and Parthia, it had been able to hold its independence during some centuries. Monobaz had many children, the offspring both of Helen and of other wives, but the youngest of all, Izates, was the favorite of both parents. In order that he should not suffer from the jealousy which that favoritism had caused among the elder brothers, Monabaz sent him to the court of a neighboring king, of the name of Abinerglus (Abennerig), who was so greatly pleased with the young prince confided to his care, that he gave him his daughter in marriage. A Judaean merchant by the name of Anania traded at this court, and whilst he showed his merchandise to the princesses, he dilated at the same time upon the tenets of Judaism with such success that he converted them to his faith. Izates, whose wife, Samach, was one of the converts, became interested in Anania, discoursed with him, and became a sin- cere adherent of Judaism, which he openly embraced in the year i8 c. e. His mother, the queen Helen, had also, without the knowledge of her son, been won over to Judaism. The deep impression which the Judaean precepts had made upon the royal converts was proved when the throne became vacant. The dying Monobaz passed over his eldest sons and named Izates as his successor. When Helen related her husband's wishes to the nobles of Adiabene, they suggested that the elder brothers should be put to death, and thus prevent a civil war, to which their hatred and jealousy might not improbably give rise. But Helen, softened by her conversion to Juda- CH. VIII. IZATES. 21'/ ism, would not follow this sanguinary advice, and only kept the brothers in confinement, with the ex- ception of her eldest son, Monobaz II, to whom she confided the regency. When Izates arrived at the capital of Adiabene, and had, according to his father's last testament, received the crown from the hand of Monobaz, he considered it an unmanly act of cruelty to leave his brothers to languish in con- finement, and he sent them as hostages into honor- able banishment, some to Rome and some to the Parthian capital. Once on the throne, Izates intended to adopt Judaism, and even to submit to the rite of circum- cision, but he was dissuaded from doing so by his mother, and by his physician, also named Anania, who, being an Hellenic Judaean, represented to him that the latter was not essential. Izates felt reas- sured for the time ; but another Judsean, a Galilaean of the name of Eleazar, and a strict follower of the Law, came to his court and offered a con- trary opinion. Eleazar, seeing the king engrossed in reading the Pentateuch, probably a Greek translation, could not help observing that to be- long to the Judsean faith it was not sufficient to read the Law, but it was necessary also to practise its precepts. Thereupon Izates, and, ac- cording to some authorities, also his elder brother Monobaz, secretly submitted to the rite of cir- cumcision. The queen-mother had anticipated dangerous results from so decided a step, but they were not immediately forthcoming. Not only was there perfect peace after the accession of Izates, but he was so much respected that he was chosen to be arbitrator between the Parthian king Artaban and the rebellious nobles of that monarch. Some time later, when several of the king's rela- tions avowed their conversion to Judaism, some of the nobles of Adiabene formed a conspiracy, and secretly induced Abia, the king of Arabia, to declare 2l8 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VHI. war against him. Izates, however, was successful, and Abia killed himself in despair. The nobles then conspired with Vologeses, the king of Parthia, to make war against their king, who had been faith- less to the religion of his forefathers. This war, however, which might have been most calamitous for Izates, Vologeses was prevented from under- taking, and henceforth his reign, which lasted about thirty years, continued undisturbed. Queen Helen, fired by the enthusiasm of the Judsean faith, desired to visit Jerusalem, and, accompanied by her son, she accomplished this long journey in about the year 43. Izates sent five of his own sons to Jerusalem to learn the religion and the language of the Hebrews. How grand and joyous must have been the wel- come offered by the inhabitants of Jerusalem to a queen come from the far distant East with the sole view of paying homage to their God and His Law ! Was not the word of prophecy fulfilled before their very eyes, that the second Temple should be greater than the first, inasmuch as the heathens should come and worship the one God ? Helen soon had the opportunity of appearing as the benefactress of the people. A famine prevailed which created great distress in the country, and the poorer classes especially suffered severely. Queen Helen sought to relieve them by bringing from Alexandria and Cyprus whole ship-loads of wheat and figs, which she distributed among the starving people (48 c. E.). Abundant means were given her by Izates to carry out her generous impulses. Her offering to the Temple consisted of a golden shell- shaped portal for the door of the inner Temple, to receive and reflect the first rays of the morning sun, and thus announce the break of dawn to the ofiiciating priests. The piety and benevolence of the proselyte Helen were long remembered with love and gratitude by the nation. She survived her son Izates, who died CH. YIII. PROSELYTIZING. 219 at the age of fifty-five (55 c. e.) ; he is said to have left twenty-four sons and the same number of daugh- ters. He was succeeded by his elder brother, Monobaz II, who declared himself also to be a firm adherent to Judaism. When Helen died, Monobaz caused her remains, as well as those of his brother, to be removed to Jerusalem, and to be buried within the magnificent tomb which she had constructed there during her lifetime. This mausoleum, which was about thirty stadia north of Jerusalem, had beau- tiful pillars of alabaster, and was considered a great work of art. Helen had built a palace in the lower part of the town, and her granddaughter, the Prin- cess Grapte, erected another in that part of Jerusa- lem known as Ophla. Monobaz, who also had his palace in Jerusalem, had golden vessels made for use in the Temple on the Day of Atonement. The people of Adiabene remained firm friends of the Judaean nation, and were always ready to give their powerful help in times of danger. This leaning towards Judaism, evinced by so many religiously inclined heathens, was utilized by the teachers of the Nazarene creed. They took advantage of and worked upon this enthusiasm, and thus laid the first step to their future conquest of the world. Two Judaeans, both coming from countries where the Greek language was spoken, Saul of Tarsus (known as Paul) and Jose Barnabas of Cyprus, de- clared their intention of proselytizing the heathen. They thus widened the sphere of the small commu- nity, and raised it from being an insignificant sect of Judaism to the position of a distinct and separate religious body, but in order to do so they were obliged to change its original character and purpose. During the short decade following the death of its founder the small community had been aug- mented by Essenes and some Judaean inhabitants of Greek countries. The former, who had hitherto 2 20 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. lived in a mystic land of visions and trusted to miraculous intervention for the arrival of the king- dom of heaven, may have seen their dreams fulfilled in the advent of Jesus. The Essenes, who had no families, were obliged to augment their numbers from without. They could only add to the com- munity by dint of mystical persuasions, and, as believing followers of Jesus, they continued their propaganda and attracted new adherents from the lower classes, whom the leaders of the Pharisees had neglected or avoided. Their untiring zeal in- cited the activity of the first Christians, who had been awaiting, not so much an Increase of believers, as the speedy re-appearance of Jesus, enthroned in the clouds of heaven. Apostles were now sent out from Jerusalem, where they were chiefly established, to propagate the belief that Jesus was the true Mes- siah. In order, however, to gain many converts, a greater power of oratory was required than the simple fishermen and mechanics of Galilee pos- sessed. This want was supplied by the addition of Greek-speaking Judseans. From Asia Minor, Egypt, Gyrene, from the islands of Crete and Cyprus, there was an annual pilgrimage of Judaeans to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover festival. Besides men of piety and enthusiasts, there were adventurers, seekers after novelty, and beggars, ignorant of the Law. Of these pilgrims, numbers eagerly adopted the new faith. Many adventurers among the Greek Judseans were easily persuaded to accept the doc- trine of the community of goods, which the Ebionite Christians had retained from their Essene origin, and which found great favor with these homeless wander- ers. All those who possessed any property sold it to increase the contents of the general treasury, and those who were utterly Impecunious lived without any cares in the community. These Greek Judaeans, who had learnt from their heathen neighbors the art of speaking on every subject, and even of veiling CH. VIII. SAUL OF TARSUS. 22 1 almost meaningless expressions in an attractive and persuasive manner, presented the new religion in an attractive form. They were best adapted to become the preachers and missionaries. When converted themselves, they used all their efforts to convert others. The Greek element soon predomi- nated over the Galilaean, Ebionite and Essene elements, of which the community had previously been composed. These Greek Judaeans, who had never been taught the Law in the schools of Jerusalem and were, indeed, generally ignorant of its tenets, trans- gressed them, sometimes unwillingly, but at times intentionally. When taken to task they justified their actions by the belief which they entertained in the Messianic character of Jesus, who, they alleged, had also put aside the authority of the Law. In Jerusalem, still considered as the holy city, each practice and observance was made a matter of deep importance. People began to suspect that the Nazarenes, who spoke in foreign tongues, were introducing innovations and endeavoring to bring the Law into contempt, and the disciples of Jesus were thenceforth watched, and their utterances in the synagogues and in the market-places were carefully noted. Amongst those who were most fanatical against the Nazarenes was Saul of Tarsus, a zealous follower of the Pharisaic school, who held that no edict of either the oral or the written Law might be tampered with. As he spoke Greek him- self, he was able to measure the boldness of the utterances of the Judsean-Christian Greeks who were in Jerusalem, and his indignation was great against them. One of these Greeks, of the name of Stephen, was particularly violent in his attacks, and had reck- lessly spoken against the holiness of the Law and the Temple. It appears that Saul proclaimed him to be a blasphemer, and that he was stoned, whether after a judicial trial or by an angry populace is not 22 2 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VHI. known. After that time the Nazarenes were viewed with still greater suspicion, and were called upon to defend themselves ; and again it was Saul who watched the proceedings of these Greek adherents of the new sect, and caused them to be brought up for trial. They were imprisoned, and those who were found guilty of contempt of the Law by their belief in the Messianic attributes of Jesus were not punished by death, but were sentenced to be scourged. The foreign Nazarenes, terrified by this severity, hastened away from Jerusalem and dis- persed in various Greek towns in which there dwelt Judaean communities, among whom they continued their work of proselytizing. Those followers of Jesus, however, who, notwithstanding their new faith, did not deny the holiness of the Law, remained unmolested. Their three leaders, James, a brother or a relation of Jesus, Kephas or Peter, and John, son of Zebedee, lived at Jerusalem without fear of persecution. The other Nazarenes zealously continued the work of conversion in foreign places. Homeless themselves, they endeavored to introduce into their circle o^ followers the doctrine of the commu- nity of goods, which would enable them to live on from day to day without care or thought for the morrow. They were particularly attracted towards the towns of Antioch and Damascus, where they found a large field for their labors in the Greek- speaking community of men and women. The half- educated multitude listened eagerly to the words of messengers who announced that a heavenly king- dom was at hand, and to enter it they must accept only baptism, and the belief that Jesus was the Messiah who had actually appeared, had been cru- cified, and had risen again. Soon these two Greek cities saw a Nazarene community settling within their walls, who seemed to be Judaeans, who lived according to Judaean rule, CH. VIII. SAUL OF TARSUS. 223 who prayed, sang psalms, and ended their songs of praise with the customary "Amen"; but who yet showed certain signs of forming a new sect. They assembled together at a meal which they called Agape, spoke the blessing over the wine, drank after one another from the same vessel, broke their bread in remembrance of the last hours of Jesus, and gave each other, men and women indiscrimi- nately, the kiss of peace. Then, in convulsive ex- citement, some arose and prophesied, others spoke in strange tongues, whilst others again effected miraculous cures in the name of Jesus. An unnat- ural and highly wrought state of enthusiasm pre- vailed in these Greek-Nazarene circles, which would probably have been deemed ridiculous, and would have evaporated in time ; in short, Christianity might have died a noiseless death, if Saul of Tarsus had not appeared, and given it a new direction, a great scope, and thereby imparted to it vital powers and vigor. Without Jesus, Saul would not have made his vast spiritual conquests, but without Saul, Christianity itself would have had no stability. Saul (born in Tarsus in Cilicia, at the beginning of the Christian epoch, and belonging to the tribe of Benjamin) had a very remarkable nature. Weak and fragile in body, he was possessed of a tenacity which nothing could daunt. He was excitable and vehement, could not endure any opposition to his opinions, and was one-sided and bitter in his treat- ment of those who differed from him in the slightest degree. He had a limited knowledge of Judaean writings, and was only familiar with the Scriptures through the Greek translation ; enthusiastic and fanciful, he believed in the visions of his imagina- tion and allowed himself to be guided by them. In short, Saul combined a morbid and an iron nature ; he seemed created to establish what was new, and to give form and reality to that which seemed impos- sible and unreal. 2 24 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. He had persecuted the Greek Nazarenes, hunted them out of their haunts of concealment to give them over to punishment, because they had seceded from Pharisaic Judaism. But that did not suffice. Hearing that some of them were estabhshed in Damascus, he followed them thither with all zeal, intending, with implacable persecuting zeal, to exter- minate the community. But his disposition towards them suddenly changed. In Damascus rnany heath- ens, particularly many of the female population, had gone over to Judaism. The conversion of the royal house of Adiabene had caused much excitement. Saul had probably himself witnessed the great tri- umph of Judaism, the entry of Queen Helen, the Princes of Adiabene and their retinue into Jerusa- lem. She probably stayed in Damascus on her journey, and there must have received the thanks of the Judaean inhabitants of that city. These events must have made a deep impression on Saul, and may have given rise to the thought : Had not the time foreseen by the prophets now arrived, when every nation should recognize the God of Israel, bow down and swear allegiance to Him alone ? If he was occupied with these thoughts he must also have been prepared to wrestle with many doubts to which they gave rise. Would it be pos- sible to convert the heathen world if the Law were to bind them with its trammels, if they were to be forced to observe the Sabbath and the festivals, to keep the dietary laws, to distinguish between the clean and the unclean, and even to submit to cir- cumcision ? Should the heathen be required to follow even the severe Pharisaic ordinances ? In that case it would be impossible that other nations should enter the Judaean community. But, on the other hand, could not the Law be abrogated for the sake of the heathens, and might they not merely be taught the knowledge of God and a loftier CH. VIII. SAULS CONVERSION. 225 morality? Yet, as the whole law originated from God, by whom it was revealed, and who had ex- pressly commanded that it should be fulfilled, how could it be set aside ? A saying of his teachers may then have occurred to Saul, that the Law was only binding until the time of the Messiah, and that as soon as the Redeemer came its importance and sig- nificance would cease. If the Messiah had really appeared, then all the difficulties that surrounded the conversion of the heathen would disappear. This train of thought engrossed the mind of Saul. His nervous temperament and imaginative nature easily dispelled all doubts, and he believed firmly and truly that Jesus had made himself manifest to him. Much later he said of the vision which had appeared : *' If it were in the flesh I know not, if it were supernatural I know not, God knows ; but I was carried up beyond the third heaven." This is not very reliable evidence to an actual fact. Legend has adorned this conversion, which was of such great importance to Christianity, in a fitting manner. It describes Saul traveling to Damascus, and his path illumined by a great light. Beholding this light, he is said to have fallen in terror to the earth, and to have heard a voice, which called to him, " Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me ?" Blinded by the vision, he reached Damascus ; and after an inter- view with a Christian, who advised him to be bap- tized, the scales at length fell from his eyes. With the certainty that he had actually beheld Jesus, another doubt was banished from Saul's mind, or a different Messianic point of view was revealed to him. Jesus had certainly died — or rather had been crucified — but, as he appeared to Saul, he must have risen from the dead ; he must have been the first who had been brought to life again, and had therefore confirmed the fact that there would be a Resurrection, which fact had been a matter of con- tention between the various schools : and Jesus had 2 26 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. also thereby announced the advent of the kingdom of heaven, of which, as the prophet Daniel had pre- dicted, the resurrection of the dead was to be the forerunner. Thus the former Pharisee of Tarsus was firmly convinced of three things — that Jesus had arisen ; that he was the true Messiah who had been predicted ; and that the kingdom of heaven, the period of the resurrection, was near, and that the then existing generation, or rather the true believers in Jesus, would soon witness its arrival. This belief led to further results. If the Messiah had already appeared, or if Jesus were actually the Christ, then the Law was of itself abrogated, and the heathens could participate in the blessing of Abraham, without observing the Law. This belief acted as an incentive to Saul. He felt himself called upon to convert the depraved world of heathendom, and, through Christ, to lead it back to the Father of all. No time was allowed to elapse between the inception of this idea and its realization. Assuming the name of Paul, he joined the Naza- renes of Damascus, who were not a little astonished that their persecutor had now become their col- league, and was seeking to make fresh converts. Paul found many opportunities for converting in Damascus, as a strong feeling in favor of Judaism prevailed there, and the sacrifice incumbent on its followers alone kept many aloof. The newly-con- verted Apostle could render this step easier, as he relieved them of all duties to the Law by means of a belief in Jesus. He does not, however, seem to have found a warm reception for his faith, resting as it did on sophistry, even amongst his own countrymen. His theory that the whole Law might be set aside was probably not considered as quite acceptable. The people also seem to have felt distrust of their former persecutor. In short, Saul-Paul could not maintain hie ground in Damascus, and fled to Arabia (Auranitis,), where Judaean communities also CH. VIII. THE DOCTRINES OF TAUL. 22/ existed. When, however, he returned to Damascus for the second time, and his coreligionists had ac- quired greater confidence in him, he could indulge his love of proselytism. But his brusque, incon- siderate manner, and his assertion that the Law was no longer in force, aroused the Judsean community of Damascus against him. The Judaean ethnarch of the town, who had been appointed or confirmed by Aretas Philodemus, sought to take him prisoner. His companions saved him, by lowering him in a basket from a window in the wall. Thus he escaped from those who rightly considered him as the de- stroyer of Judaism. He returned to Jerusalem three years after his conversion. He felt that there was a wide difference between himself and the Gali- Isean Christians, and that he would not be able to make terms with them. Paul was filled with the one thought, that the blessing for all generations, the promise (evangel) made to Abraham that he should be father of many nations, and that the wealth of the heathen should belong to the children of Abraham, was now finally to be realized, and that he (Paul) was called upon to effect this work. He wished to put an end to the difference between the Judseans and the Greeks, between slaves and free- men, and to make all brothers in the covenant of Abraham — as the seed of Abraham — according to the promise given in by-gone years. This was the glad message which he brought to the people ; it was a far-reaching thought, of which the Ebionites in Jerusalem and the so-called main Apostles had no understanding. After a short stay in Jerusalem, Saul, accompanied by his disciple, the Cyprian Joseph Barnabas, re- paired to Cilicia, Paul's native place, and traversed Asia Minor and Macedonia to Achaia. There his endeavors were crowned with marvelous results. He founded in various places Greek-Christian com- munities, especially in Galatia, in Ephesus, Philippi, 228 HISTOKV Ob- THE JEWS. CH. VIII. and Thessalonica, and in the town of Corinth. This result may partly be laid to the credit of Judaism ; for when Paul wished to win over the heathens, he had to unfold to them the glorious past of the Ju- daean nation, in order to speak of Jesus. He also had to contrast the pure belief in God with the wild practices of heathendom. He found a susceptibility for the pure teachings of Judaism among- the heathen. Not a few felt disgust at the mythological stories of the gods and the deification of human beings. The remembrance was yet fresh in their memories how all nations of the Roman kingdom, with unexampled abjectness, had dedicated altars to the monster Cali- gula, and had recognized and worshiped him as a god. Despairing and pure spirits sought a God to whom they might elevate themselves, but they did not find him. Now Paul had come and brought them this God, surrounded, it is true, with wonderful stories, which, however, pleased them, on account of the mythological strain in them. The heathen nations could better comprehend the " Son of God " than the " Messianic Redeemer." The wide-spread dis- ease of immorality, which was rife throughout the Roman empire, rendered the Judaean teachings acceptable and proper. Paul's orations, delivered with the fire of enthusiasm, and uttered by one who threw his whole soul into his words, could not fail to make an impression on the better-disposed and purer-minded heathens. To this was added the fear of the approach of the end of the world, which Paul, through his firm belief in the resurrec- tion and reappearance of Jesus, had transformed into the hope that the dead would arise, in refulgent form, at the trumpet-call, and that the living would be carried up into heaven in a cloud. Thus Paul appealed to the imagination of many heathens in his apostolic wanderings from Jeru- salem to Illyria. At first he aroused only people of the lower classes, slaves, and especially women, CH. VIII. HEREDITARY SIN. 229 by his glad tidings. To the cultivated Greeks the Christianity which Paul preached, based on the so-called resurrection of Jesus, appeared as a ridiculous absurdity. The Judaeans were natu- rally displeased with him. Paul's chief topics, on which he dilated to the heathens whom he wished to convert, were the Judaean nation, Judaean writings, and the Judsean Law ; without these his preaching about a Messiah or salvation had no foundation. The Greeks must have been told about Israel and Jerusalem, or his words would have fallen on deaf ears. He, therefore, could only resort to those towns where Judaean communities dwelt, from whom the heathen nations had received some faint notion of the history and doctrines of Judaism. Paul's efforts were directly aimed at destroying the bonds which connected the teachings of Christ with those of Judaism. He therefore inveighed against the Law, as it proved a hindrance to the reception of heathen proselytes. He asserted that it was detrimental to the pursuit of a higher spiritual life and to following the way of truth. Paul not only disapproved of the so-called ceremonial laws of Judaism, but also of those relating to morality. He affirmed that without laws men would not have given way to their evil desires. " Thou shalt not covet " had first aroused covetousness ; thus through the Law the knowledge of sin had arisen. Man is sensual and inclined to sin, for flesh is weak and inclined to resist the Law. Paul set up a new teaching. He maintained that man had only be- come sensual, weak and sinful because the first man had sinned. Adam's fall had given birth to an inextinguishable hereditary sin, and by this means death had come upon humanity. The Law was not able to overcome this hereditary sin. In order to destroy sin and death, God had made a special dispensation. He had given up the Messiah, His .''on, to death, and again re-animated him, and he had 230 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII. become the second Adam, who was to obliterate hereditary sin, to conquer death, and estabHsh ever- lasting life. Thus the Redeemer, instead of bring- ing about the redemption of nations from the yoke imposed on them, had redeemed them from sin. Paul therefore conceived Christianity to be the very opposite of Judaism. The one was founded on law and compulsion, the other owed its origin to freedom and grace. Jesus or Christianity had brought about the holy state foretold by the pro- phets. The ancient times had departed, and a new state of things had arisen ; the old covenant (Testa- ment) must yield to the new one ; Abraham himself had not been judged as just through the Law, but through faith. Thus Paul sophistically explained the Scriptures. From the Law it is to be inferred that whosoever does not abide by it, and refuses wholly and entirely to comply with its precepts, stands under a curse. The great service which Jesus had rendered w^as that he had delivered all men from this curse, for through his means the Law had been set aside. How could the Judseans submit to this open desecration of the Law of Sinai for which their forefathers had suffered death, and for which, but a short time since, under Caligula, they had determined to sacrifice their lives ? It is not to be wondered at that they rose against the man who despised the Law, and per- secuted him. They, however, contented them- selves with flogging Paul when he fell into their hands, but they left his life unharmed ; five times, as he himself relates, he was chastised with thirty-nine strokes. Not only the Judaeans but also the Nazarenes, or Judsean Christians, were incensed against Paul for his attack on the Law, and by this means dissension and schisms arose in the midst of young Christianity. Peter, or Kephas, who came as a messenger to the Judseans, taught a Christianity which differed from that of Paul, and CH. VIII. PETER. 231 that of the other Apostles who sought to make converts amongst the heathen ; whilst Apollos from Alexandria, and a certain Chrestus preached another version. The Judaic Christians saw with terror the fruits of the ceremonial freedom preached by Paul in the communities founded by him in Corinth and Ephesus, where every species of vice and immor- ality was rife. Other Apostles, therefore, fol- lowed Paul, and proclaimed his teachings full of error and misrepresentation, and maintained that the Law of Judaism was binding on Christians, as it was only by this Law that the lower pas- sions could be held in check. In Antioch a vio- lent quarrel arose between Paul and the Judaic- Christian Apostle. Peter, who till then had disre- garded the dietary laws and eaten at one table with the heathens, was censured by the leaders of the severe party of the Apostle James, and was now obliged to acknowledge his fault, and to speak openly against Paul's contempt of the Law. Paul, on the other hand, reproached him with hypocrisy. The influence of the severe. Law-loving Judaic Christians was, however, so great that all the Judaean Christians of Antioch gave up eating at the tables of the heathen, and their example was even followed by Barnabas, the disciple of Paul. Racial feelings also helped to widen the breach between the two parties. The Greek Christians despised the Judaic Christians in the same way as the Hellenes had looked down upon the Ju- daeans. Paul sent out violent epistles against the adherents of the Law, and laid a curse on those who preached salvation in a manner diflering from his own. These did not spare him either, and related how he had loved the daughter of a high priest ; how, on being despised by her, he had in disgust written against circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Law. Thus, within barely thirty 232 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. VIII years after the death of its founder, Christianity was split into two parties, namely, a Judaic-Christian and a heathen-Christian sect. The Judaic Christians remained attached to the foundations of Judaism, compelled their converts to adhere to the Law, and clung to Jerusalem, where they awaited the return of the Messiah. The heathen Christians, on the other hand, separated themselves more and more from Judaism, and took up an inimical position towards it. CHAPTER IX. AGRIPPA II. AND OUTBREAK OF THE WAR. Position of Affairs in Judaea — Roman Oppression — Character of Agrippa II. — The last High Priest — The Zealots and the Sicarii — Eleazar ben Dinal' — Quarrel with the Samaritans — Violence in Caesarea — The Procurators — Florus — Insurrection in Cassarea — Bloodshed in Jerusalem — The Peace and War Parties — The Leader of the Zealots, Eleazar ben Ananias — Menahem, chief of the Zealots — Massacres of Heathens and Judasans — Defeat of the Romans — The Synhedrion and its President, Simon ben Gamaliel — Position of the Synhedrion. 49—66 C. E. Whatever triumph Judaism might celebrate by the accession of proselytes, and bright as seemed the dawn of the day predicted by the prophet, when the peoples of the earth would turn their eyes to Zion, and towards the light issuing thence to illu- mine the human race, yet in their native land, and more especially in Jerusalem, the yoke of the Romans weighed heavily on the Judseans, and be- came daily more oppressive. The pitiable state of existing affairs crushed down all joyful feelings as to the prospective do- minion of Judaism. A veil of sadness had for the last twenty years been spread over the nation, and no joyful feelings could exist beneath it. The last decades exhibit the nation as a captive who, con- tinually tormented and goaded on by his jailer, tugs at his fetters, with the strength of despair, until he wrenches them asunder. The bloody con- test between Rome, strong in arms and fertile in stratagem, and Judaea, poor in outward means of warfare and powerful only through indomitable will, inspires the deepest interest because, in spite of the disproportion between the combatants, the 234 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. weak daughter of ZIon would probably have gained the victory had she not been torn by conilicting parties and surrounded by tread ^ry. Perhaps, had she awaited a more favorable moment, success might have been hers ; but Providence had decreed the destruction of her national life. This great combat, to which few struggles in the history of the world are comparable, was waged not merely for liberty, like the wars in which the Gauls, Germans, and Britons were en- gaged against Rome, but had likewise a religious character. The Judaean people were daily wounded in their religious sentiments by the arbitrary rule of Rome, and desired to gain their independence in order to acquire and maintain the free exercise of their religion. Such being their aim, the fre- quent reverses they sustained could not abate the ardent longing they felt to be free ; on the con- trary, it rose with each fresh disaster, and in the most trivial circumstances they saw and resented an attack upon their most sacred convictions. It was seldom, indeed, that Rome outraged the religious feelings of the Judseans as she had done under Caligula ; on the contrary, she rather indulged their susceptibilities, but she often wounded them unin- tentionally through her despotic and jealous super- vision. The higher classes, poisoned by the seductive arts of Rome, had become deaf to the voice of duty, and the wise and vigilant among the nation feared, with reason, that the whole body would be infused with the moral prostration of its highest members. The aristocratic families were, indeed, so deeply steeped in immorality that the middle classes could hardly escape its contaminating influ- ence. The bad example was set by the last mem- bers of the house of Herod, who were educated either in Rome itself or in the small courts of the princely Roman vassals. Agrippa II (born 27, CH. IX. AGRIPPA II. ■j:) died 91-93), son of the last noble Judaean king Agrippa I, a mere stripling of seventeen years at the time of his father's death, drank in the pois- oned air of the Roman court, where the Messallnas and Agrlppinas openly displayed the most hideous vices. After the demise of Herod II, the Emperor Claudius gave Agrippa the tiny kingdom of Chal- cis (about 50). It was whispered that this last scion of the Hasmonaean and Herodian houses led an incestuous life with his beautiful sister Berenice, who was a year younger than himself, and a widow on the death of her husband, Herod II. There was probably some truth in the rumor, as Agrippa found himself forced to silence it. He betrothed his sister to Polemon, king of Cilicia, who, perhaps allured by her wealth even more than by her beauty, adopted Judaism to obtain her hand. But impelled by her inconstant humor, Berenice soon left Polemon, and was free again to indulge in her licentious intrigues. Agrippa's second sister, Mariamne II (born 34), married to a native of Palestine, Julius Archelaus, dissolved that union, though she had borne him a daughter, and became the wife of the Judaean Demetrius of Alexandria, probably the son of the Alabarch Alexander, and in that case the brother of the apostate Tiberius Alexander. Still more depraved was his youngest sister, the beautiful Drusilla (born 38). Her father had promised her, when still a child, to the prince Epiphanes, the son of his friend Antiochus of Commagene, but only upon condition of his becoming a convert to Judaism. After Agrippa's death, however, Epiphanes refused to accept Judaism, and the young Agrippa gave his sister Drusilla to Aziz, king of Emesa, who declared himself willing to embrace her faith. Heedless, however, of conjugal duty, Drusilla soon abandoned her husband, married a Roman, the Governor Felix, and for his sake gave up her faith and became a 236 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. pagan. The envy with which Berenice inspired Drusilla was supposed to have been the motive of the infidelity of the younger sister both to her husband and to her rehgion. Although Agrippa was only prince of Chalcis, he was looked upon as the king of Judaea. Rome cer- tainly had not deprived him of the royal title, but had divested him of all power, and made use of him only as a pliant tool and as a guard upon the movements of the surrounding nations. Agrippa was devoted to the imperial house, styling himself the emperor's friend. He displayed weakness and impotency when it behooved him to put bounds to the usurpations, insolence, and arrogance of Rome, and only showed his strength when he opposed the struggles of his people to regain their freedom and liberty. The whole house of Agrippa, including his most distant connections, Antipas and the two brothers Costo- bar and Saul, were all immoral, rapacious, and hostile to their own people. The only authority which Claudius, or rather his council, had left in the hands of the titular king, and which was ratified by his suc- cessors, was that which he was allowed to exercise over the Temple, and which enabled him to appoint the high priest. It was not religious zeal or moral worth that swayed Agrippa in the choice of the high priest, but simply the sentiments felt by the candi- date for that office towards Rome. He who carried servility and the surrender of national aspirations furthest gained the prize. In barely twenty years Agrippa had named at least seven high priests. Among that number was Ananias (son of Eleazar?), whose enormous wealth, either acquired or inherited, allowed him to ingratiate himself with all who were open to bribery, and set him free to practise acts of lawlessness and violence. Since the time when Herod had lowered the dignity of the high priest's office by permitting it to be sold or gained by pandering to most degraded sentiments, there were CH. IX. CORRUPTION OP^ THE PRIESTHOOD. 237 certain families who seemed to have acquired a right to it — those of Boethus, Cantheras, Phabi, Camith, and Anan or Seth, and it was but seldom that any one was elected outside that circle. The members of these families vied with each other in dishonorable conduct and frivolous thoughtless- ness. Often their fierce jealousy broke out in acts of violence, and the streets of Jerusalem occasion- ally were the scenes of bloody skirmishes between the followers of those hostile rival houses. Each succeeding high priest tried to gain as much as pos- sible out of his office, giving — heedless of the worth or fitness of the recipient — the most lucrative places in the Temple to his relatives and friends. So reckless were the high priests in the use, or rather abuse, of their power, that they would send their slaves, armed with clubs, to the barns to seize for themselves the tithes which every one was legally free to give to whichever priest he might select. Those priests who had not the good fortune to be related to the high priest were thus deprived of the means of subsistence, and fell into stringent poverty. Avarice and greed of power were the mainsprings of the actions of those who were elected to repre- sent the highest ideal of morality ; the Temple was despoiled by its dignitaries even before the enemy forced his way into it with his weapons of murder. From this time, according to tradition, the visible signs of divine mercy ceased to appear in the Temple. Like some cankerous affection, this demoralization of princes and high priests extended ever more and more to the classes closest to them, producing evils which are depicted in dark colors by the pen of a contemporary. Since the penal laws were admin- istered in the name of the emperor, and were placed under the control of the governors, the judiciary became dependent upon the Romans and the wealthy and influential classes. Selfishness, bri- bery, calumny, and cowardice, according to the 238 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. painter of the manners and morality of that period, were ever increasing. " They throw off," he bitterly exclaims, " the yoke of heaven, and place themselves under the yoke of men ; their judgments are false and their actions perverse. The vain and thought- less are made great, while the nobler citizens are despised." Frivolity in the women and licentious- ness in the men were so completely the order of the day that the most eminent teacher of morality of that time, Jochanan ben Zaccai, found himself obliged to abolish the ritual hitherto used in cases of suspicion of adultery. With deep sorrrow, the nobler- minded Judaeans lamented a state of things in which outward forms of worship stood higher than morality, and the defiling of the Temple caused more scandal and wrath than an act of murder. In the lower classes, crime of another but of a not less alarming nature appeared. The frequent insurrec- tions which had been stimulated and fomented by the Zealots since Rome had arrogantly treated Judaea like a conquered province, had given rise to bands of free troops, which roved wildly about the country, confounding liberty with licentiousness, and trampling upon both customs and laws. They crowded the caves and hollows which abound in the rocky mountains of Judsea, and from those retreats made frequent irruptions to gratify their love of unbridled liberty. Some bands of Zealots, led by Eleazar ben Dinai and Alexander, were incited by feelings of patriotism to deeds of cruelty. They had sworn destruction and death to the Romans, and they included among the latter all those who consorted with them; they would not recognize them as Judseans, and deemed it no crime to plun- der and destroy them. The degenerate friends of Rome were, according to their views, and the oaths they had taken, mere outlaws, and the Zealots kept their oath only too well. They attacked the nobles as often as they fell in their way, ravaged their CH. IX. THE SICARII. 239 possessions and did them as much harm as lay in their power. If there was any wrong to be avenj^ed upon the enemy of their country, they were the first to lend their sword in defense of their outraged nationality. Another band of Zealots, grown wild and savage, forgot the original aim of liberating their country, and turned their attacks upon the foes of the latter into profit for themselves. They were called Sicarii, from the short dagger " sica," which they wore con- cealed under their cloaks, and with which, either openly or insidiously, they struck and killed their enemies. The Sicarii belonged to the very refuse of the Zealots. Later they acknowledged the grand- sons of Judas of Galilee, Menahem and Eleazar ben Jair, as their leaders, but at the commencement of this epoch they were under no discipline whatever. They wandered about the country without any defined object, lending their assistance to those who either offered them a reward or an opportunity for satisfying their thirst for revenge. Armed with daggers, they wandered among the various groups that thronged the colonnade of the Temple during the festivals, and unperceived, struck down those they had marked out as their victims. These mur- ders were committed with such extraordinary rapidity and skill, that for a long time the assassins remained undiscovered, but all the greater were the dread and horror excited by those dark, mysterious deeds. Murders became so frequent that Jochanan ben Zaccai and the teachers of the Law found it neces- sary to abrogate the sin-offering for the shedding of innocent blood, as too many animals would have been slaughtered for the human victims. It may have been about this time that the Great Synhedrion, which witnessed with intense grief the constant in- crease of lawlessness and immorality, gave up its functions and transferred its place of meeting from the Hewn-stone Hall to the Commercial Hall in 240 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. Bethany, an act which seemed to imply its dissolu- tion. To stem, if possible, the confusion and disorder which existed, the noblest citizens combined, and keeping aloof from conflicts and strifes, sought to further by all means in their power the spiritual advancement of Judaism. To keep the Law intact was their self-imposed, sacred task. In Jochanan ben Zaccai they found a fitting representative. He was considered, next to the president of the Synhed- rion, Simon ben Gamaliel (and perhaps even before him), as the greatest teacher of that time. On account of his deep knowledge of the Law and of the worth and dignity of his character, Jochanan ben Zaccai was made vice-president of the Synhed- rion. That position gave him the power to cancel such laws as could not be enforced in that stormy period. His chief office, however, was that of teacher. In the cool shade cast by the Temple walls, he sat, encircled by his disciples, to whom he delivered the laws that were to be observed, and expounded the Scriptures. Besides the spirit of anarchy there was another source of discord and misery. As the existing situation became more and more sad and hopeless, the longing in the hearts of faithful believers for the expected deliverer who was to bring peace to Judeea became more and more intense. Messianic hopes were rifer among the people now than they had been even during the time of the first Roman governors ; and these hopes stirred up enthusiasts who proclaimed themselves to be prophets and Mes- siahs, and who inspired belief and obtained followers. Freedom from the yoke of Rome was the one great aim of all these enthusiasts. What the disciples of Judas attempted to bring about by force of arms, the disciples of Theudas hoped to accomplish without fighting, having recourse only to signs and miracles. A Judaean from Egypt calling himself a prophet, CH. IX. MESSIANIC HOPES. 24I found no less than three, or according to another account, four thousand followers. These he sum- moned to the Mount of Olives, and there promised to overthrow the walls of Jerusalem with the breath of his mouth and to defeat the Roman soldiers. He was not the only one who, carried away by the fervor of desire, prophesied the approach of better times. And well may those enthusiasts have found acceptance among the people. A nation that had enjoyed so rich a past and looked forward even to a more glorious future, might allow itself to be lulled into forgetfulness of the dismal present by pictures of freedom and happiness. These visions and prophecies, harmless enough in them- selves, derived a sad importance from the bitter and savage animosity with which they inspired the Roman governors. If the people, jealous of any interference with their religion, looked upon the slightest offense to it as an attack upon Judaism itself, and made the governors, the emperor, and the Roman state responsible for the delinquency, the imperial officials in Judaea were not less suscep- tible, for they treated the most trivial agitation among the people as an insult to the majesty of Rome and the emperor, and punished with equal severity the innocent and the guilty. Vain was the favor shown to the Judaean nation by the emperors Claudius and Nero — the procurator constantly over- stepped the limit of his authority, and urged on by greed and the love of power, acted the part of tyrant. Judaea had the misfortune to be almost always governed by depraved creatures, who owed their position to the reckless favorites who ruled at court. They rivaled one another in acts of wickedness and cruelty, thus ever increasing the discontent and provoking the wrath of the people. Cumanus, who succeeded Tiberius Alexander (about 48-52), was the first of five such avaricious and bloodthirsty procurators. He governed only the 242 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. provinces of Judrea and Samaria, Claudius having bestowed the command of the province of GaHlee on FeHx, the brother of his favorite, Pallas. Cumanus and Felix became deadly foes. It was the governor of Judaea who first excited the resentment of the people. Jealous suspi- cion of any great concourse of people assembled in the Temple, a suspicion which, since the revolt at the time of the census, had become traditional among the Roman governors, induced Cumanus, at the time of the Passover, to place an armed cohort in the colonnade of the Temple to watch the throngs which gathered there during that fes- tival. On that occasion a soldier, with the reckless- ness often exhibited by the inferior Roman troops, made an offensive gesture towards the sanctuary, which the people interpreted as an insult to their Temple. Carried away by indignation and anger, they threw stones at the soldiers and abused the governor. A tumult ensued, which threatened to become a serious sedition. Cumanus ordered fresh troops to advance and take possession of the fortress of Antonia, and assuming a menacing aspect, alarmed the people assembled round the Temple, who now hastened to escape from his reach. In their anxiety to get away, the crowds pressed fearfully through the various places of exit, and it is believed that more than ten or indeed twenty thousand persons were suffocated or tram- pled to death. A similar occasion might have led to a like disastrous result, had not Cumanus prudently complied with the wishes of the people. On the highway, not far from Bethoron, a band of Sicarii having fallen upon and robbed a servant of the emperor, Cumanus resolved that all the neighbor- ing villages should suffer bitterly for the act of vio- lence committed in their vicinity. One of the Roman soldiers, infuriated by an attack upon a CH. IX. QUARREL WITH THE SAMARITANS. 243 fellow-countryman, got possession of a Book of the Law, tore it in pieces and threw the fragments into the fire. Here was a new cause for angry excite- ment and wrathful reproaches in the desecration of what they held most sacred. Countless bands flocked to Cumanus at Csesarea, crying out against the blasphemer. Much rather, they exclaimed, would they suffer the worst fate themselves than see their Holy Scriptures profaned ; and in tones of fury they called for the death of the guilty man. The governor yielded this time to the counsel of his friends, and ordered the soldier to be executed in the presence of those whose religious feelings he had outraged. Another occurrence took a more serious form and led to strife and bloodshed. Some Galilaeans who were on their way to a festival at Jerusalem, passed through Samaria, and whilst in the town of Ginaea, on the southeastern end of the plain of Jezreel, they were murdered in a fray with the hos- tile Samaritans. Was this only an accidental mis- chance, or the result of the burning hatred which existed between the Judaeans and the Samaritans ? In either case the representatives of Galilee were justified in demanding vengeance at the hands of the governor upon the murderers. But Cumanus treated the affair with contemptuous indifference, and thus obliged the Judaeans to deal with the matter themselves. The leaders of the Zealots, Eleazer ben Dinai and Alexander, incited both by the Galilaeans and their governor, Felix, took the matter into their own hands, entered with their troops the province of Acrabatene, inhabited by Samaritans, and pitilessly destroyed and killed all within their reach. The Samaritans appealed to Cumanus for redress for this attack upon their province, and he gave them permission to take up arms, sending at the same time Roman troops to assist them in a fearful massacre. 244 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. This proof, as they considered it, of the par- tisanship of the emperor's officials roused the anger of the inhabitants of Jerusalem to such a degree that, spurred on among others by Dortus, a man of some position, they were on the point of attacking the troops of Cumanus, which would doubtless have seriously increased the gravity of the situation, and might have hastened the final catastrophe by twenty years. The prin- cipal inhabitants of Jerusalem, however, alarmed at the possible consequences of an outbreak against the Roman arms, strove to prevent so dangerous an act, and, clothed in deep mourning, implored the irritated multitude to pause and think of the future. At their prayer the people laid down their arms. But neither the Judeeans nor the Samaritans were really pacified, and still smarting under the wrongs mutually received, they sent deputies to the Syrian governor, Umidlus Ouadratus, accus- ing each other, and asking him to investigate the whole dispute. To effect that object, Quadratus visited Samaria ; but he was not an impartial judge, and many of the captive Judzeans were doomed to perish on the cross. It was only after those exe- cutions had taken place that he formed a tribunal of justice, and summoned both parties to appear before it. In the meantime, however, Felix having taken the part of the Galilaeans against the Samaritans, such entanglements ensued that Quadratus would not venture to adjudicate between the disputants, and ordered them to send deputies to Rome to obtain the decision of the emperor. Among the Judaean envoys were Jonathan, the former high priest, and Anan, the governor of the Temple. Cumanus was also obliged to leave his post in order to appear at Rome and justify himself there. All the intricate court intrigues were brought into play by this trial, which took on a more serious aspect from the fact that the governor himself was one of the CH. IX. FELIX. 245 accused. The emperor caused a tribunal to be formed; but the verdict was given not by himself, but by his depraved wife, the notorious Agrippina, who was the paramour of Pallas, the brother of Felix. It had been arranged between the Judcean deputies and Pallas that after sentence was pronounced against Cumanus, the emperor should be asked to name Felix governor of Juda;a in his stead. The verdict given in favor of the Judaeans could not be considered an impartial one, and was not in itself a proof that the Samaritans had been the aggressors. Many of them were pronounced guilty and executed, and Cumanus was sent into banishment. At the same time, probably also through the intercession of the empress, a kingdom in the northeast of Judaea was bestowed upon Agrippa ; it consisted of that part of the country which had once belonged to Philip's tetrarchy, Batansea, Gaulanitis, Auranitis, Trachonitis, as well as Paneas and Abilene. On Judaea proper Rome kept a firm grasp, and would never allow a native prince, however much he might be under Roman influence and control, to exercise in that domain any regal prerogatives. Felix, whose appointment had been sought of the emperor by the former high priest, Jonathan, suc- ceeded Cumanus as governor of Judaea. He married Drusilla, King Agrippa IPs beautiful sister, who thereupon went over to paganism. During his long administration, Felix surpassed all his prede- cessors in arrogance and audacity. He gave him- self up entirely to the acquisition of riches and the satisfaction of his appetites. He continued to exercise his evil power even after the death of Claudius (54). For although the young emperor, Nero, or his mother, Agrippina, was as favorable to the house of Herod as Claudius had been, and had given Agrippa four considerable towns with their surrounding districts as well as the important city 246 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. of Tiberias near Tarichea in Galilee, Judaea was allowed to remain under the iron rule of its cruel governor. Felix pretended to attack only the seditious mutineers ; but the fact of his consorting with the wild Sicarii showed how little truth there was in that assumption. Numerous, indeed, must have been the victims who suffered death at his hands under the plea that they were the enemies of Rome, for even the former high priest, Jonathan, at whose request the emperor had given Felix his appointment, now bitterly reproached him for his misdeeds. Exasperated by his boldness the gov- ernor caused him to be assassinated, employing the Sicarii to seize and murder him in the broad light of day. Ishmael II, of the house of Phabi, was named high priest by Agrippa in about the year 59. It was during his pontificate that the family of the high priest gained such power in the state that, aided by a strong rabble, they were able to compel the landowners to pay them all the tithes, thus robbing the lower priests of their incomes and causing many of them to perish from want. The arrogance with which the governors treated the nation was not without its baneful influence upon the conduct of the foreigners who dwelt in great numbers in the towns on the sea-coast. The Greeks and Romans that had settled in Judaea openly showed their hatred to their neighbors, and usurped the position of masters in the land. The fearful picture drawn by the great prophet seemed now on the point of being literally fulfilled : " The stranger in thy midst will ever rise higher, but thou wilt ever sink lower," The most shameless in their conduct towards the Judaeans were the Greek Syrians who lived in Caesarea — even the civil rights of the former were disputed by them. But the Judaeans of Caesarea, who far surpassed their heathen fellow-citizens in industry, wealth and courage, would not allow themselves to be deprived CH. IX. FESTUS. 247 of their rights of citizenship, and fierce disputes and fights In the streets were consequently of almost daily occurrence. On one occasion, some Judsean youths having avenged with blows an insult they had received from a party of Syrians, and obliged the latter to flee, Felix took up the affair, called In some troops, which, being chiefly composed of Greeks and Syrians, sided heartily with their own countrymen. Many Judoeans lost their lives, many were imprisoned, and the houses of the rich were plundered and destroyed. The actual point in dispute remained undecided, both sides being only more embittered by the blood that had been shed. The rival parties sent deputies to Rome, and Nero was called upon to pronounce judgment between them. Bribery gained the favor of Burrus, the secretary of the emperor, to the cause of the Syrians of Ccesarea. His verdict was consequently given against the Judaeans, who were deprived of their civil rights. Festus, the successor of Felix, governed for only a short time (from 59 to 61). During that period the unsatisfactory state of things remained un- changed, or. If possible, became still worse. A new enthusiast, proclaiming himself the Messiah, awoke the hope of the people for liberty and redemption, drew followers around him, and then shared the fate of his predecessors. The jealous spite which animated the different parties became more and more violent. The king, Agrippa, at length took up hlfj residence in Jerusalem, in the Hasmonaean palace, which was just opposite the Temple. In order to overlook the courts of the latter he added to the height of his palace, and from the hall in that building, where he took his repasts, he could watch every movement that took place in the Temple. The Temple authorities took umbrage at this, and complained that Agrippa encroached upon their privileges ; and in order to hide the Temple from 248 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. his view they had a high wall built on its western side. This aroused the displeasure of Agrippa and of the governor, who wished to demolish the hardly finished wall. Bitter words were used on both sides ; but at last prudence prevailed, and it was resolved that the dispute should be settled by the emperor. Twelve deputies, among whom were the high priest Ishmael and the treasurer Hilkia, were sent to represent the case at Rome. It was not Nero, however, but his paramour, Poppea Sabina, who gave the verdict. This beautiful but shameless woman had, strangely enough, a preference for Ju- daism, and as at Nero's court all state affairs were conducted by intrigue, the Judaean deputies profited by that happy chance and won their cause. The deputies brought back the imperial order that the jealous guard kept over the Temple should be dis- continued. A few years later Poppea interceded again on behalf of two Judseans who had been con- demned by Felix and sent as prisoners to Rome. In order not to infringe upon the laws of their religion they, like Daniel and his friends, refused, whilst in prison, to eat anything but fruit. But at the desire of Poppea, who had now become empress, Nero granted the self-denying captives their liberty. After the death of Festus, Nero named Albinos governor, and in comparison with those who pre- ceded and those who came after him he was looked upon as a just ruler. Before he entered the prov- ince, Anan the high priest attempted to revive the half-extinct Sadducaeism, and to put its penal code again into force ; a tribunal was elected by him, and innocent men were condemned. The Pharisees were so dissatisfied with this illegal Synhedrion that they demanded of Agrippa the dismissal of the high priest. The new governor Albinus was met on his way by accusations against Anan, who it was said had infringed upon the authority of Rome by punishing CH. IX. JOSHUA BEN GAMALA. 249 criminals himself. His enemies were successful, and he was obliged to resign his office of high priest after having filled it for three months. Joshua ben Damnai succeeded him, but in a short time he had to give way to Joshua ben Gamala (63 or 64). Ben-Gamala had married a widow of great wealth, Martha, a daughter of the house of the high priest Boethus, and it is said that she induced King Agrippa II, by the offer of a large bribe, to confer the office of high priest upon her husband. Between Joshua ben Damnai and his more fortunate suc- cessor there burned so fierce a hatred that their respective followers could not meet in the streets without insulting and even attacking each other. Joshua ben Gamala can, however, by no means be ranked among the worst of the high priests. The improvement in education, which began with him, testified to the interest he took in the useful institu- tions of the community. He established schools for boys from the age of five years in every town. But Ben-Gamala did not long retain his high office ; he was obliged to resign it to Matthia ben Theophilus (65), the last of the twenty-eight high priests who owed their election to Rome and the house of Herod. Albinus the governor, who was bent upon the de- struction of the fanatical Sicarii, embittered the people by the heavy taxes laid upon them, a part of which he kept for himself. Upon learning that a successor had been appointed, he caused those of the Sicarii who had been imprisoned for serious offenses to be executed, and those who were suffer- ing for lighter misdeeds were, upon paying a fine, set at liberty. The Sicarii thus released from im- prisonment took part afterwards in the insurrec- tions of the people against their oppressors, and stained the good cause with many acts of cruelty. The last of the procurators, Gessius Florus, who also was appointed by Poppea, hastened by his shameless partiality, avarice, and inhumanity, the 250 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. execution of the long-cherished plan of the malcon- tents to shake off the tyrannical yoke of Rome. Florus was one of those utterly profligate beings to whom nothing is sacred ; who sacrifice every- thing to their greed, and disregard, without scruple, the most solemn oaths. What his predecessors had done with a pretense at least to some form, or under the shadow of secrecy, he accomplished openly in brazen-faced defiance of the Law. Inaccessible to pity, he had indulgence only for the Sicarii, who gave him a portion of their plunder. In the two years during which his administration lasted (64-66), many towns were completely sacked. The Sicarii were allowed to carry on unmolested their nefarious practices, the rich being obliged to pur- chase their favor as well as that of their patrons. So unbearable was this condition of the state that even a cowardly nation must have lost patience, and the courage of the Judaean people, in spite of the thousand disasters which had befallen them, of the heavy weight of the Roman yoke, and of the daily acts of violence of which they were the victims, was not yet broken. Rome at that time resembled a community of madmen, among whom the emperor Nero, confiding in the favor of the Senate and the people, perpetrated one folly after another, and was guilty of a succession of crimes. Thus, ex- cepting through their own endeavors, there ap- peared no chance of deliverance for the Judseans. This was the opinion of the best and greatest among them, of all those who were not the tools of Rome, or blinded by her false splendor, or paralyzed by terror of her strength. The boldest were already thinking of rebellion. The governor, Cestius Gallus, had, in the meantine, been informed of the exasper- ation and angry feeling that existed among the Ju- dsean people, and reported the state of Judaea at the court of Rome, failing not to make known there that the nation was brooding over conspiracy and CH. IX. CENSUS OF THE PEOPLE. 25 1 revolt. But no one listened to his warning voice. Nero was too busy to attend to such trifles ; he had to play the zither, to perform on the stage, to indulge in orgies, and to devise murders. The Empress Poppea, the friend of the Judaeans, was dead. The creatures of the court resembled the monster Ges- sius Florus, and doubtless derided what they con- sidered the puerile fears of Gallus. The latter thereupon devised a plan to bring prominently before Nero's court the vastness of the population of Judsea, and the imprudence of underrating it. It was arranged between Agrippa and the high priest Matthia that at the Feast of the Passover a great though peaceful demonstration should take place, through a peculiar manner of numbering the people. Circulars were sent to the community, residing both within and outside Judaea, bidding vast numbers appear at the coming festival. Crowds of worship- ers, a greater concourse than had ever assembled before, obeyed the summons. In the spring of the year 66 they flocked to celebrate the Feast of Pass- over ; from the towns and villages of Judsea, from Syria, even from countries bordering the Euphrates, and from Egypt, they streamed into Jerusalem, which could hardly contain the vast multitude. On their way towards the Temple, some of the pilgrims were crushed in the crowd, and this feast was thereafter called the Passover of the Crushing. The number- ing of the people was carried on in the following way : — From each offering a kidney was taken for the priests, the kidneys thus appropriated being counted ; and it was reckoned that each lamb that was eaten in company, was partaken of by at least ten persons. The result of these calculations proved that nearly three millions were at that time present in Jerusalem. Cestius Gallus had himself come to Jerusalem to conduct the investigation, and all appealed to him to have pity on their unspeakable woes, and to 252 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. deliver them from their country's scourge. Florus, who was present, only smiled, but the governor of the city promised to use his influence in softening the procurator's heart towards them, and he ac- quainted Rome with the imposing concourse he had seen with his own eyes at Jerusalem. He was, however, much deceived as to the effect produced by his device of proving how great were the numbers of the people. Kero, at that time, had reached the highest point of his arrogance and pride. " Should Nero, whose triumphs surpassed those of Pompey, Caesar, and Augustus, fear Judzea ? " The account sent by Cestius Callus of the crowds assembled at Jerusalem during the Feast of Passover was prob- ably not even read by Nero, or, if looked at, only thrown to the winds. In Judcea, and above all in the capital, men, young and old, became daily more impatient to break the galling chains of Rome. Patience was exhausted ; they awaited only the favorable moment when they could strike at their foe with a chance of success. A trifling incident, which brought to light the unparalleled insolence of Plorus, fanned the spirit of impatience and closed the lips of prudence. Fresh causes of disagreement had arisen between the Judaeans and the Syrians in Caesarea ; the former could not forget that Nero had lowered them in the eyes of their fellow-citizens, and the latter, elated by the preference given them, made the Judaeans feel their degraded position. The irrita- tion thus caused, stirred up the religious hatred and racial animosity which slumbered under the surface in both communities. A piece of ground belonging to a heathen in Caesarea, which happened to be just in front of the synagogue, was covered by him with shops, so that only one narrow entrance to the sacred building remained. The hot-headed Judaean youths tried to interrupt the construction of these booths, and Florus, won over by a large sum of CH. IX. FLORUS. 253 money, refrained from interfering ; and, in order not to be a witness of the probable scene of contention, he absented himself and went to Samaria, leaving the two bitterly-opposed parties to the undisturbed exercise of their passionate animosity. On a certain Sabbath, while the Judaeans were assembled in wor- ship, a Greek placed a vessel in front of the syna- gogue and sacrificed birds upon it, to signify that the Judseans were descendants of outcast lepers. This calumny concerning the origin of their race was not taken quietly by the Judsean youths, who instantly armed themselves and fell upon their mocking foes. The fight ended in the defeat of the Judaeans, all of whom thereupon, carrying away their holy books, betook themselves to the neighboring small town of Narbata, and thence sent an em- bassy of twelve men, among whom was the rich tax-gatherer Jonathan, to Florus in Samaria. The deputies reminded him of the sum he had received, and of his promise to afford them protection. But instead of listening to their supplications he received them harshly, and threw them into prison. When tidings of this new act of violence reached Jerusalem, the anger of the whole population was aroused, but before they had time to form any plan of action, Flo- rus sent them another exasperating message. He desired the warden of the Temple to hand over out of the sacred treasury seventeen talents, which he declared were required in the service of the emperor. This command, the intention of which was plainly discerned by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, made them flock around the Temple as though they would shield the threatened Sanctuary. The timid broke forth in lamentations, and the fearless reviled the Roman governor, and carried a box about as though they were collectmg alms for the indigent Florus. The latter, anticipating opportunities to satisfy his avarice and thirst for blood, now came himself to Jerusalem, and by his presence added fuel to the 2 54 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. fire. Florus placed himself as judge in front of the palace of Herod, and called upon the high priest and the men of greatest standing to appear before him, demanding them to deliver into his hands those who had dared mock him. Trem- bling, they endeavored to offer excuses for what had taken place, and implored his mercy. But F"lorus heeded them not, and gave orders to the Roman soldiers to plunder the upper market-place, a quarter inhabited by the wealthy. Like very de- mons the wild soldiers threw themselves into the market and the adjoining streets, killed men, women and children, ransacked houses and carried off their contents. On that one day (i6th lyar), more than three thousand six hundred men perished. The prisoners, by the command of Florus, were scourged and crucified. In vain had the princess or queen Berenice knelt before Florus, imploring him to stay the work of bloodshed and destruction ; he was deaf to her entreaties, and in fear for her own safety she was obliged to seek refuge and safety in her palace. Some days after, vast crowds gathered in the now half-ruined upper town (Zion), uttering lamentations for those who had been killed and pronouncing execrations upon their murderer Florus, and it was not without much difficulty that the heads of the people succeeded in silencing them. But this only increased the audacity of Florus, who demanded, as a proof of their present peaceable intentions, that the people with the nobles should go forth to meet the incoming troops and welcome them in a friendly spirit. The representatives of the Sanctuary could hardly induce the people to comply with that request, for the patriots rebelled against the new humiliation thus thrust upon them, and persuaded many to share their sentiments. At length, however, the high priest succeeded in persuading the people to offer an amicable reception to the Roman cohorts. But soon the deceitful intention of the governor mani- CH. IX. BEGINNING OF THE INSURRECTION 255 fested itself. The people fulfilled the heavy sacrifice they had with heavy hearts undertaken to perform, and greeted the troops with forced friendliness ; but the soldiers, having received their instructions from Florus, looked grimly at them and made no res- ponse. At the first murmur of discontent caused by the strange manner of the Roman troops, the latter rushed upon the people with drawn swords, driving them before them, whilst the horses trampled on the fugitives. A fearful crush took place at the gates of the city, and the road from Bezetha was strewn with the wounded and the killed. When it was perceived that the soldiers were directing their steps towards Fort Antonia and the Temple, the designs of Florus upon the treasures contained in it could no longer be concealed, and the people hastened to the Sanctuary to protect it, if possible, from his sacrilegious project. They threw stones at the soldiers, barred their passage through the narrow entrance, demolished the colonnade which connected the fortress Antonia with the Temple, and thus frustrated the governor's hope of becoming a second Crassus. Without being aware of it them- selves, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had by that step commenced the war of insurrection. Before the determined attitude of the people the courage of Florus forsook him. He informed the representatives of the capital that in order to restore peace to Jerusalem, he would quit the city and with- draw the greater number of the troops, leaving only a small garrison behind. Upon representations being made to him that the greater part of the army was hated by the people, on account of the inhu- manity of which it had been guilty, he bade them choose those soldiers who had taken least part in the recent butchery. The representatives of Judaea selected the soldiers who served under Metilius, whose weak disposition appeared to them a pledge of forbearance. But hardly had Florus left Jerusa- 256 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. lem, when the heated ferment resolved itself into determined action. The people were divided into two parties, one was the party of peace, the other the party that favored revolution. The latter party was composed chiefly of the young and strong, who shared the views and principles of the Zealots. They were ready to risk their lives in their endeavor to overthrow the yoke of pagan, tyrannical Rome, and regain their cherished liberty. The revolutionary party was not devoid of states- manlike discretion ; it had already formed an alli- ance with the princely house of Adiabene, which was warmly devoted to Judaism, and had likewise managed to interest the Parthian-Babylonian com- munity in its cause. The advocates of war, bold and fearless, looked down upon their more timid brethren. Men of strength, filled with lofty aspir- ations, they swore a solemn oath to die rather than submit to Rome ; and well did they keep that oath in the raging war, under the hail of the cata- pults, tortured by the rack, and in the arena of wild beasts. The soul of the revolutionary party in Jerusalem was Eleazar ben Ananias, who belonged to a high-priestly family. He was well versed in the Law, and belonged to the strict school of Shammai, which generally agreed with the Zealots. On the side of peace were the followers of Hillel, who abhorred war on principle ; the nobles who were basking in the brilliant sunshine of Rome ; the wealthy, whose possessions would be exposed to jeopardy through so great a revolution — all these, though smarting under the insolence of Florus, desired the continuance of the pre- sent state of things under the imperial power of Rome. The honest friends of peace, however, failed to perceive that the evil from which the Ju- daean community suffered did not depend upon any one person who might be accidentally in power, but upon the system of tutelage and robbery, and on CH. IX. THE SPEECH OF AGRIPPA. 257 the fundamental difference which existed between the foreign rulers and the people they governed. Even the best governors, those who truly desired to preserve order and peace, could not have pre- vented the susceptibility of the nation from being frequently wounded, nor the constant irritation of the people. The people, although aroused and embittered, appeared undecided, and paused before taking the final step, each party trying to draw the popu- lace to its side. The friends of peace, wliilst they strove to moderate the anger of the masses, endeav- ored likewise to justify their revolt against Florus before the Syrian governor, Cestius, and to explain that Florus was in fault for the disturbance which had broken out. They acquainted Cestius with everything that had occurred, and begged him to come to Jerusalem to see with his own eyes the misery and ruin caused by the acts of the last gov- ernor, and to convince himself of the friendly de- meanor of its inhabitants. Cestius, too indolent to come and inquire into the matter himself, sent a deputy, Neapolitanus, in his stead. The leaders of the revolutionary party had, in the meantime, been so successful that the payment of taxes to Rome was withheld. The king, Agrippa, who, from motives of self-interest, was in favor of peace, called the people together, and attempted to open their eyes to the danger into which they were blindly running. Standing upon a high gallery opposite the Temple he spoke to the people. At his side was the Princess Berenice, who had inter- ceded for the injured and downtrodden, to cover him with the shield of her popularity. His speech, containing every argument that reason or sophistry could urge against war with Rome, made at first some impression upon the people. A great number of them cried out that they had no ill-will against the Romans, but only 258 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. desired to be delivered from the yoke of Florus. Thereupon Agrippa exhorted the assembled mul- titude to show that they were really peacefully inclined by replacing the broken columns they had thrown down and paying the taxes due to the emperor. For the moment it appeared as though their angry feelings were about to subside. The shattered colonnade was to be repaired, and in the adjoining towns and villages taxes were gathered. When Agrippa found what an advantage he had gained he went a step further, and tried to persuade the people to obey Florus as their governor until his successor should be appointed. But this last demand spoilt all. The revolutionary party again won the upper hand, and Agrippa was obliged to flee from Jerusalem. Those who had so often suffered from the cruelty and injustice of Florus, at the very mention of his name feared to become again his miserable dupes and the victims of cunning intrigue. After Agrippa's de- parture there was no question of taxes. Universal was the satisfaction at their abolition, and the tax- gatherers durst not confront the prevailing excite- ment by attempting to enforce their payment. The day on which it was resolved not to pay the taxes, the 25th Sivan (June), was henceforth to be kept as the anniversary of a victory. The Sicarii now also began to bestir themselves. They assembled under the command of Menahem, a descendant of Judas, the founder of the Zealots, and took the fortress of Masada ; they put its Roman garrison to death, possessed themselves of their weapons, and being thus well armed, appeared on the field of battle. Eleazar, the head of the Zealots, fanned the revolutionary spirit of the people, and drove them on to complete rupture with Rome. He dis- suaded the priests from receiving any presents or sacrifices from heathens, and so great was the ( H. IX. THE WAR ANT) PEACE PARTIES. 259 power he exerted that the officiating^ priests discon- tinued offering the daily sacrifice for the emperor Nero. That was the starting-point of the revoki- tion. Allegiance to the emperor was thenceforth renounced. The party of peace saw also the grave importance of this step and tried to retrace it. Learned teachers of the Law, doubtless of the school of Hillel, explained to a large gathering of the people that it was unlawful to shut out the offerings of heathens from the Temple, and aged priests declared that it was an ancient custom to receive such offerings. The officiating priests, however, remained unconvinced, and threw them- selves without reserve into the maelstrom of revo- lution. From that time on, the Temple obeyed its chief, Eleazar, and became the hotbed of the insur- rection. The advocates of peace saw with sorrow the pro- gress made by the rival party, and tried to smother the flames before they could accomplish the work of destruction and ruin ; but the means they employed to quench the revolutionary fire only made it burn the more fiercely. They sent deputies to Florus and Agrippa, earnestly entreating that a suf- ficiently large number of troops should be instantly despatched to Jerusalem. The former, actuated either by timidity or by the spirit of revenge which made him desire that the hated Judaeans should be- come more and more hopelessly entangled, refused to comply with that request. Agrippa, on the other hand, sent 3,000 horsemen, Auranites, Batanseans, and wild Trachonites, under the command of Philip of Bathyrene, and Darius, a commander of cavalry, to help the party that wished to remain at peace with Rome. When these troops arrived, they found the Mount on which the Temple stood, as well as the lower town, already in the possession oi thi Zealots. The aristocratic quarter of the higher town alone remained open to them. A fierce com- 26o HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. bat took place between the two parties, the royal troops joining the few soldiers left of the Roman garrison. Fighting continued for seven days, with no decided results. At the time of the festival of wood-carrying (15th Ab), however, the situation changed. The Zealots barred the entrance of the Temple against any one belonging to the peace party, and gained over to their side the masses who had brought wood for the altar, as well as the Sicarii who had made their way into the Temple through the crowd. Strengthened by the increase of numbers, the Zealots drove away their opponents and became masters of the upper town.- The anger of the people was roused against the friends of Rome, they set fire to the palaces of King Agrippa and Princess Berenice, devoting to the flames likewise the house of the rich priest Ananias, and the public archives, among which the bonds of debtors were kept. Some of the partisans of Rome crept in terror into the sewers, while others took refuge with the troops in the western palace of Herod. Shortly after this the Zealots attacked the Roman guards in the fort Antonia, overcame them after a siege of two days, and put them to death (17th Ab) ; they then stormed the palace of Herod, which was defended by the combined troops of Rome and Agrippa. After eighteen days of inces- sant fighting the garrison capitulated and the Ju- daean soldiers under Philip were allowed to depart unhurt. The Romans, too proud to sue for mercy, retreated to the three towers in the wall, Hippicus, Phasael, and Mariamne. The Sicarii under Mena- hem rushed into the fort after the Romans had left it, and killed all who had not been able to save them- selves by flight (6th Elul — August). But the patriotic Zealots, the followers of Eleazar, were soon made aware of the injury their righteous cause must sustain from their fraternizing with the unrestrainable Sicarii. Puffed up by their victory CH. IX. VICTORY OF THE ZEALOTS. 26 1 over Agrippa's troops, Menahem and his satellites broke out into acts of shameful cruelty. Insulting pride now characterized Menahem's behavior ; words of anger were exchanged between him and Eleazar ; and as the former entered the Temple in the captured regal attire, the words became blows and fighting commenced. The Sicarii were besieged, and Menahem, who had fled to the part of the city called Ophla, was brought back and executed. A small number of his followers, under his relative Eleazar ben Jair, escaped to the fortress of Masada, which was occupied by their friends. After this bloody episode the Zealots, led by Eleazar, besieged the towers, and the Roman troops under the com- mand of Metilius were at last obliged to sue for mercy. The Judaeans deputed to treat with Metilius agreed that the Romans, deprived of their arms and baggage, should be allowed to depart unmolested. As soon, however, as the conquered soldiers were divested of their swords and shields, Eleazar's band fell upon them and destroyed them all. Metilius alone was spared, because in the fear of death he had promised to adopt the Judaean faith, and he was allowed to live an animated trophy of the victory of the Judaeans over the Romans. The day on which Jerusalem was delivered from the Romans (17 Elul) was henceforth to be considered one of the festive anniversaries. That the aim of Eleazar and his party was noble and disinterested was shown by the moderation they observed after their victory. The city was in their hands, their rivals helpless, and yet in the annals of those times we can discover no trace of persecution or cruelty towards them. Thus far the insurrection had been limited to Jerusalem, for the rest of Judaea, although equally excited, remained quiet during the events that were taking place in the capital, and awaited the result. Florus himself had likewise remained quietly at Caesarea, taking care, however, that the revolution 262 IILSTORV OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. should flow on like a stream of fire, carrying devas- tation all over the country, and even beyond its boundaries. When tidings of the battle between the Zealots and the Roman cohorts in Jerusalem reached Caesarea, the Greeks and Syrians attacked the Judieans who had returned there. The carnage which ensued must have been fearful ; more than twenty thousand Juda^ans were killed, and these, doubtless, did not succumb without, in self-defense, causing some other deaths. Not a single Judaean remained alive in Caesarea. Those who tried to flee were captured, put into chains by the com- mand of Florus, and sent as slaves to various ships. This unexampled cruelty exasperated the whole population of Judaea, and their hatred against the heathens broke out into wild frenzy. Everywhere, as though by common assent, bands of free troops formed themselves, attacking the heathen inhabi- tants of the country, burning, destroying, and slay- ing. These barbarous onslaughts, of course, called again for revenge from the heathen population of Judaea and Syria. Many towns were divided into two hostile parties, which savagely fought together during the day, and lay in ambush to injure each other at night. A horrible deed, resulting from the war of races, took place in the town of Bethshean, the first of a long series of acts of self-destruction of which we read in the account of the destruction of the Temple. Its heathen inhabitants had made a covenant with their Judaean fellow-citizens, promis- ing to befriend them if they would assist in repulsing any attack of Judaean bands upon their town. The Judaeans in Bethshean honestly fulfilled their agreement, fought vigorously against their brethren, and drove them away from the vicinity of the town. Among the combatants on that occasion, Simon ben Saul, a Judaean of gigantic strength and great valor, was principally distinguished. CH. IX. MASSACRE AT ALEXANDRIA. 263 No sooner, however, were the heathen inhabitants dehvered from their assailants than, under cover of the night, they fell upon the unguarded Judaeans, and put them all, nearly thirteen thousand, to death. In that fearful massacre Simon and his family alone survived, the former, wielding his drawn sword with the energy of despair, drove terror into the hearts of his enemies. Full of anguish and remorse at having fought against his brethren, he resolved to fall only by his own hand. After killing his aged parents, his wife and children, he thrust his sword into his breast and expired at their side. The violent animosity which inflamed the Ju- daeans and heathens in Caesarea also reached Alex- andria. A massacre of the Judaeans, partly due to the anger of an apostate, took place in the Egyp- tian capital. The Alexandrian Greeks, jealous of their Judaean fellow-citizens, resolved to solicit the Emperor Nero to deprive them of the rights which they had received from Claudius, putting them on a footing of equality with the Greeks. To select the deputies who were to convey their wishes to the emperor, a large concourse assembled in the amphitheater of the town. A few Judaeans being discovered among the crowd, they were fiercely attacked and insulted as spies. Three of them were dragged through the streets to be committed alive to the flames. Enracjed at the savao^e treatment of their brethren, the Judaeans armed themselves, seized firebrands, and threatened to burn the amphitheater where the Greeks were still assembled. The governor Tiberius now attempted to interfere in order to stay the impending civil strife, but he only increased the angry ferment. The Ju- daeans hated him for being a renegade to his faith, and reproached him with his apostasy. Infuriated by their taunts, Tiberius Alexander lost all control over himself; he ordered his legions to repair to 264 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. the Judaean quarter, and gave free license to the exercise of that brutality which it had cost so much effort to restrain. The soldiers, greedy for blood and plunder, poured in upon the beautiful Delta quarter of the town, killed all whom they found in their way, burned the houses, and filled the streets with blood and corpses. Fifty thousand Judaeans lost their lives, and the man who ordered that frightful butchery was the nephew of the Judaean philosopher Philo ! Such was the alarming proportion which the insurrectionary movement by Eleazar ben Ana- nias had assumed. The revolution had tasted blood, and was drawn on and on in its hurried course till it carried away even the indifferent, and converted almost the whole nation into Zealots. From day to day the number of brave and daring warriors increased. The expected help now came from Adiabene and Babylon. Members of the royal house of Adiabene, brothers and sons of the King Izates, Monobazus and Cenedseus, took the management of the rebellion into their own hands, and prepared to hold out to the last. Three heroes, who alone seemed more than equal to a whole army, now entered Jerusalem. They were Niger, from the other side of the Jordan, Silas, the Babylonian, and Simon Bar-Giora, the wild patriot, who, from his first entrance to the end of the war, brought terror to the hearts of the Romans. Cestius Gallus, whose duty it was as Governor of Syria to uphold the honor of Roman arms, and to keep the imperial supremacy intact in the country placed under his jurisdiction, could no longer witness the rebellion spreading around him without an effort to stem its progress. He called his legions together, and the neighboring princes vol- untarily sent their troops to his assistance as auxil- iaries. Even Agrippa contributed three thousand foot soldiers and two thousand horsemen to the CH, IX. BATTLE WITH THE ROMANS. 265 Roman army, and offered himself as guide through the mountain paths and ravines of that dangerous country. Cestius led more than thirty thousand men, experienced soldiers, out of Antioch, against Judaea, and doubted not that in one battle he would be able to destroy the Judaean rebels. On his way along the sea-coast he left in every town marks of blood and fire. As soon as the Zealots in Jerusalem heard of the approach of the Roman troops they seized their arms, in spite of its being the Sabbath day. They were not afraid to face the Romans, nor would they allow the Sabbath laws to interfere with their war- like ardor. Cestius had made a halt at Gabaot, about a mile from Jerusalem, expecting, perhaps, a missive of repentant submission. But the Zealots attacked the Roman army with such impetuosity that they broke through their ranks, killing in the first onslaught more than five hundred soldiers, whilst they only lost three and twenty men them- selves (26th Tishri — October). If the Roman cav- alry had not come to the assistance of the foot soldiers, the latter would have been utterly destroyed. Loaded with rich booty, the victors returned to Jeru- salem, singing jubilant hosannas, while Cestius dur- ing three days remained idle in his camp without venturing to advance. It was only on the fourth day that the Roman army approached the capital. The Zealots had abandoned the outer parts of Jerusalem, which could afford them no adequate shelter, and had withdrawn behind the strong walls of the inner town behind the Temple. The Romans thereupon marched in, destroyed the suburb Bezetha, then pressed on towards the western point, just opposite Herod's palace, where they pitched their camp (30th Tishri). This caused no alarm to the Zealots ; they threw the traitors who, following the advice of Anan ben Jonathan, wished to open the gates to the enemy, 266 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. over the walls, and preparea vigorously for the defense of the places they occupied. During five successive days the Romans stormed the walls, but were always obliged to fall back before the missiles of the JudcL-ans. It was only on the sixth day that they succeeded in undermining a part of the north- ern wall in front of the Temple. But this advantage was not followed up by Cestius. He did not deem it advisable to continue the combat against heroic enthusiasts and embark on a lengthy campaign at that season, when the autumn rains would soon com- mence, if they had not already set in, and might prevent the army from receiving provisions. On that account probably he thought it more prudent to retrace his steps. It could hardly have been cowardice which inspired the resolve. As soon as the unexpected departure of the Ro- mans became known to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they followed them, attacking the rear and flanks of the army from the mountain crests, the Roman troops being obliged to keep to the beaten ways in the val- leys and passes. A great number of Romans, among whom were many distinguished officers, lay slain upon the line of march. When the army reached the camp in Gabaot, it found itself surrounded by swarming hosts of Judaeans, and Cestius, not con- sidering it safe to remain there any longer, hastened his retreat, leaving the heaviest part of the baggage behind. In the narrow pass of Bethoron the Roman army fared still worse ; attacked on all sides, it was brought into confusion and disorder, and the men could not defend themselves from the arrows of the enemy, which fell thick upon them from the vantage- ground of the mountain wall on either side. Wildly the Roman troops hurried on towards Bethoron, and they would have been almost completely de- stroyed in their flight had not approaching night saved them from further pursuit. The Judaeans remained all night before Bethoron, but Cestius, leaving four hundred brave soldiers in CH. IX. TRIUMni OF THE ZEALOTS. 267 the camp, marched noiselessly out with the whole of his army, so that at break of day, when the Judseans perceived what had taken place, he had already obtained a considerable start. The four hundred soldiers left behind succumbed to the Judseans, who then vainly followed the Roman army as far as Antipatris. They found, however, rich booty, consisting of arms and implements of war. These they brought back as trophies to Jerusalem, making good use of them later on against their enemies. The money chests of Cestius, which con- tained the supplies for the war, fell also into their hands, and helped to replenish the treasury at Jeru- salem. In this first campaign against the despised Judseans the army of Cestius lost nearly six thou- sand men, both Romans and allies ; and the legion which the governor had brought from Antioch as a picked corps to fight against Jerusalem had lost their eagles, a loss which was regarded by Rome as the greatest dishonor that could befall an army, equivalent to a shameful defeat. The Zealots, shouting exultant war songs, returned to Jerusalem (8th October), their hearts beating with the joyful hope of liberty and independence. The proud and happy time of the Hasmonaeans seemed to have returned, and its glory even to be surpassed. Had not the great Roman army, feared by all the world, been defeated and forced to igno- minious flight ? What a change had been effected in the brief space of six months ! Then every one trembled before the cowardly Florus and his few sol- diers, and now the Romans had fled ! Had not God helped them as mercifully as He had helped their forefathers ? The hearts of the Zealots knew no fears for the future. "As we have beaten the two generals, Metilius and Cestius, so likewise shall we overcome their successors." Any one who spoke of submission to Rome or of the advantage of open- ing negotiations with her was looked upon as a 268 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. traitor to his country and an enemy to Judaism. The advocates of peace had for the moment lost all influence, and the friends of Rome could not ven- ture to utter aloud their real sentiments. Many of them left Jerusalem secretly, whilst others pretended to share the Zealots' love of freedom and hatred of Rome. The two Herodian brothers, Costobar and Saul, sought the presence of the Emperor Nero in Greece, attempting to excuse the insurrectionary outburst and to throw the blame of it upon Florus. While they were trying to vindicate the fidelity of the Judaean nation, the Zealots, intoxicated with their victory, had coins struck with the inscription — " For the deliverance of Jerusalem." Even the Samaritans now put aside their old feeling of ani- mosity against the Judseans, and to gratify their hatred of the Romans made common cause with their former enemies. Stirring activity took possession of the capital, and gave It quite a new appearance. Everywhere weapons were being forged and implements of war manufactured, in preparation for any fresh assault. The walls of Jerusalem were strengthened to a de- gree that promised to set the enemy for a long time at defiance. The young men underwent daily mili- tary exercise, and their enthusiasm made up for their want of experience. In all parts of Judaea the war- like patriots and foes of Rome formed provisional committees to prepare for the great struggle which they felt must be approaching, and their glowing ardor was shared even by the Judseans who lived in foreign lands. Of the Internal political arrangements Introduced In Jerusalem after the defeat of Cestlus, only slight and uncertain indications have come down to us. The historian friendly to Rome, who could not suffi- ciently darken the rebellion of the Judaeans, was not inclined to record any of their acts. There can be no doubt, however, that the Great Synhedrion again CH. IX. SIMON BEN GAMALIKl . 269 acquired its former supreme authority over all politi- cal and military affairs. At the head of the great council was Simon ben Gamaliel, of the House of Hillel, one who, even according to the account of his enemy, must have been gifted with remarkable dis- cernment and energy, and who might, had his advice been followed, have brought the impending struggle to a successful issue. Although he did not belong to the party of extreme Zealots, he desired the con- test to be carried on with the most resolute activity, and upheld, with all the strength given him by his eminence and position, those who were determined that the revolution should be real and its effects last- ing. Upon coins dating from the first and second years of the newly-won independence, appears the following inscription, "Simon, the Prince of Israel," which doubtless referred to the Patriarch Simon ben Gamaliel. After the victory gained over Cestius, the heathens became more and more embittered against their Judaean neighbors ; and either from fear of an onslaught from them, or actuated by revenge for the defeat of the Romans, they formed them- selves into murderous bands, slaying without pity Judaean men, women and children who were living among them. Such cruel massacres must have incensed the patriots all the more, as they fre- quently occurred among' communities innocent of the remotest idea of joining the rebellion, and now, as far as lay in their power, the Judseans took their revenge upon their heathen neighbors. The savage enmity of races rose higher and higher, and, spreading far beyond the narrow boundary of Pales- tine, animated the Judaeans on the one side and the Greeks and Romans on the other. As all the nations around Judsea, including Syrians, Greeks, Romans and Alexandrians, made common cause with the Roman emperor, the ultra-Zealots thought themselves justified in visiting upon them the wrath 270 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. IX. that inflamed them against Rome. To cut off every link between them, the followers of the school of Shammai proposed erecting a barrier which should effectually prevent any communication, by prohibiting the Jud:eans in future from buying wine, oil, bread, or any other articles of food from their heathen neighbors. These regulations were known under the name of " The Eighteen Things." Religious fervor and political zealotry, in those stormy times, always accompanied each other. The Hillelites, more moderate in their religious and political views, could not agree to such sharply de- fined exclusiveness, but when the Synod was called together to decide upon the laws before mentioned, the Zealots proved all-powerful. Eleazar ben Ananias, probably the leader of the Zealots, who was himself a teacher of the Law, invited the dis- ciples of both schools to meet in his house. Armed soldiers were placed at the door and were directed to allow every one to enter but no one to go out, and during the fiery discussions that were carried on there, many of the school of Hillel are said to have been killed. On account of these acts of violence, the day on which the severe decrees of the school of Shammai were brought forward and agreed to, the 9th Adar, was regarded as a day of misfortune. Meanwhile, the warlike activity of the Judaeans had not ceased for a moment. The urgent neces- sity of making a selection of generals and leaders for the approaching strife was felt by all. The important choice belonged, it appears, to the people themselves, who for some cause or other had taken umbrage at the ultra-Zealots. Eleazar ben Ananias, who had given the first impulse to the great up- rising, was only made governor of the unimportant province of Idumsea, and was even obliged to divide his authority with another. Eleazar ben Simon, an ultra-Zealot, who had been instrumental in gaining the victory over CH. IX. WEAKNESS OF THE SYNHEDRION. 27 1 CestiLis and who was the treasurer of the Temple, was, in spite of belonging to the class of nobles, completely overlooked. Moderate men, even those who had been formerly friends of Rome, obtained the preference. Joseph ben Gorion, and Anan the son of Anan, who for a short time had held the office of high priest, received posts of the greatest import- ance, the supervision of Jerusalem and the defense of the fortresses. Besides these, five governors were appointed over different provinces. To Joseph ben Matthias was entrusted the most important place of all. The people, still dazzled by the magic of aristocratic names, could not allow men of un- known origin, however brave and devoted they might be, to fill high political positions. The ruling power lay in the Great Synhedrion, and con- sequently in those who presided over that assembly, Simon ben Gamaliel and his associates Anan and Joseph ben Gorion. Simon was at the head of the Pharisees, and Anan, the former high priest, made no attempt to conceal his leaning towards Sadducaeism ; but their antagonism in religious matters did not prevent them from now acting together. The love of country outweighed the spirit of partisanship. The apparent unanimity that reigned in the Synhedrion was nevertheless deceptive. Great nobles, secret friends to Rome, had a place and voice in that assembly, and often brought indecision into its councils. Opposite and conflicting views resulted in halting measures and diminished vigor. The Synhedrion was likewise often swayed by the changing sentiments of the people, which always receive attention in the hour of revolution. Thus deprived of united strength and active energy, the Synhedrion ruled for barely two years, when it suc- cumbed through weakness, and was obliged to give up the reins to the ultra-Zealots. CHAPTER X. THE WAR IN GALILEE. Description of Galilee — Its Population and Importance — The Rising in Galilee — John of Gischala — Flavius Josephus. his Education and Character — His Conduct as Governor of Galilee — Com- mencement of the War — Overthrow of Gabara — Siege and Capture of Jotapata — Surrender of Josephus to the Romans — Cruelty of Vespasian — Siege and Capture of Gamala and Mount Tabor — Surrender of Gischala — Escape of John of Gischala to Jerusalem. 66—67 c. E. The territory entrusted for defense to Joseph ben Matthias, by reason of its position, its astonishing fertility, its sturdy population, and its various re- sources in time of danger, was looked upon as the post of greatest importance next to the capital ; it was, in fact, the bulwark of Jerusalem. Galilee was divided into Upper and Lower Galilee. This, the country of enthusiasts, the birthplace of the Zealot Judas and of Jesus of Nazareth, did not receive the news of the revolt of Jerusalem and the defeat of Cestius with indifference. It assumed, on the con- trary, with unreflecting ardor the juDilant spirit of the victorious party. And how could the Galilaeans have remained indifferent ? Had they not witnessed the cruel deaths of their own kin at the hands of the heathen ? Daily they had been in the habit of giving shelter to unhappy Judaean exiles, and daily they had had to fear the worst from their heathen neigh- bors. It was in the face of such dangers that all the cities of Galilee had armed to be ready for action, and were only awaiting a signal from the Synhedrion in Jerusalem. Three cities above all others were longing to raise the standard of revolt — Gischala in the extreme north, Tiberias in the south, and CH. X. JOHN OF GISCHALA. 273 Gamala, opposite Tiberias, on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. The Judaean inhabitants of Gischala were, to a certain extent, forced into in- surrection, for the neighboring cities had banded together, and, after plundering the town, had partly destroyed it by fire. The enraged Gischalites placed themselves under the leadership of a man destined to carry on the war against Rome to its bitter end, and who, in company with Simon bar-Giora, became the terror of her legions. John ben Levi, of Gischala, commenced his career by collecting under his flag all the rebellious Ju- daeans of Upper Galilee, and by preparing to lead them against the heathen populace. He was a man of small means and of delicate constitution, but he possessed one of those enthusiastic natures capable of rising above the depressing Influences of poverty and ill-health ; besides which he had the art of making the circumstances of his life subservient to his own aims. At the commencement of the Gali- laean rising, John's only ambition was to strengthen the walls of his birthplace against the attacks of hostile neighbors. Later on, he expended the con- siderable sums of money which he earned*by selling oil to the Judoeans of Syria and Caesarea Phlllppi (for they would not use the unclean oil prepared by the heathens), in paying for the services of patriotic volunteers. He had gathered around him about four thousand of these, principally Galllaeans, but partly refugees from Syria, who were always in- creasing in number. In Tiberias, the second focus of insurrection, the revolutionary party were confronted by a faction with Roman proclivities. This beautiful city by the sea had been in the possession of King Agrippa for many years, and having enjoyed a tolerably easy condition under his rule, had but little cause for complaint. But the greater part of the popu- lace were Zealots, clamorous to free themselves 2 74 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. X. from their monarch. The soul of the revolt was Justus, the son of Pistus, who wrote the history of the war in which he was engaged, in the Greek lano-uage. He was gifted with a persuasive tongue ; but his great influence was confined to the wealthy and refined inhabitants of the city. Jesus ben Sap- phia, a Zealot like himself, led the lower classes of sailors and burden-carriers. Opposed to these in- surgents was the aristocratic party, which rallied loyally round the king and the Roman army. They were represented by Julius Capellus, Herod ben Miar, Herod ben Gamala, and Kompse bar Kompse, but they had no following amongst the people, and were obliged to become the unwilling spectators of the surrender of their city to the revolutionists. The news of the defeat of Cestius was the signal for Justis and Jesus ben Sapphia to commence operations against the heathen cities where their co-religionists had been so barbarously massacred. The city of Gamala, one of the most important on the southeast coast of the Sea of Galilee, whose impregnable position made defense easy and con- quest difficult, was preparing for revolt. In the neighborhood of Gamala lived a settle- ment of Judsean Babylonians, who, under Herod I, had migrated to Batanaea, where they had built several towns and the fortress of Bathyra. The Babylonians, for the colony was called by this name, were devoted adherents to the Herodian family, and Philip, a grandson of Zamaris, the first founder of the colony, was the leader of the royal troops who fought against the Zealots in Jerusalem. When, how- ever, he had suffered defeat in that city, his life had been spared, for he had promised to aid the Zealots in their struggle against Rome. He lay concealed for a few days in Jerusalem, and then effected his escape to a village of his own near the fortress of Gamala. Varus, who temporarily was taking the place of Agrippa in Caesarea, did not look favorably upon CH. X. PHILIP AND VARUS. 275 Philip, of whose influence with the king he was jealous. For Varus hoped in time to supersede Agrippa, and, in order to court popularity, resorted to the cruel device of putting many Juda;ans in Csesarea Philippi to death. But all the while he dreaded the Babylonian colony and the wrath of Philip, who most certainly would divulge his ambi- tious designs to Agrippa. Thus he tried to lure Philip into his presence, but, happily for himself, that general was seized with a severe attack of fever, which he had caught in his flight from Jerusalem, and which prevented him from obeying the sum- mons of Varus. Varus succeeded, however, in tempting seventy of the most distinguished Judaeans into his power, the greater number of whom were murdered by his command. At the news of this assassination, terror seized upon all the Babylonian Judaeans who were settled in the various cities of Galilee. They rushed into Gamala for protection, breathing vengeance, not only against Varus, but against all the Syrians who had supported him. They were joined by Philip, who with difliculty restrained them from some signal act of vengeance. But even after Agrippa had dismissed the unscrupulous Varus from his office, the Babylonian Judaeans still evinced great eagerness to coalesce with the enemies of Rome, and were therefore ordered to leave the fortress of Gamala and return to Batanaea. But this caused so great a tumult and division in the city that some of the inhabitants rose and attacked the Babylonians who were about to leave them, whilst others, under the leadership of a certain Joseph, revolted from the rule of Agrippa. It was at this moment, when the volcano of revo- lutionary passions was ever ready to burst forth in fresh eruptions, that Joseph ben Matthias was entrusted by the Great Synhedrion with the com- mand of Upper and Lower Galilee. In those prov- 2/6 HISTORY OF Till-: JEWS. CH. X. inces the powerful city of Sepphoris alone remained faithful to the Romans, and in all Galilee there reigned a bitter feeling of enmity against Sep- phoris. For the people of Tiberias were angered that their city should have taken only a secondary place in the province, in spite of Agrippa II's having chosen it for his capital. It was the business of the governor to promote a spirit of concord amongst the inhabitants of Galilee, and at the same time to win the Sepphorites to the popular cause. Upon the shoulders of this man rested a heavy re- sponsibility. For it w^ould naturally depend greatly upon him whether this revolt, which had burst into life with such extreme energy, would attain the end desired by the patriots, or would have a tragic ter- mination. Unfortunately, Joseph was not the man who could successfully pilot so gigantic a scheme, but by his conduct he materially contributed to the fall of the Judaean nation. Joseph, the son of Matthias, better known as Flavins Josephus, was a native of Jerusalem (born 38, died about 95), of illustrious priestly descent, and related, on the female side, to the Hasmoncean house. He and his brother Matthias received a careful education, and were taught the tenets of the Law whilst very young, their father's house being frequented by learned rabbis. At the age of six- teen Josephus became the disciple of the hermit Vanus, following his master into the desert, living on the wild fruits of the earth and bathing daily in cold water, according to the habit of the Essenes. But, growing weary of this life, he returned, after three years, to Jerusalem, where his fine intellectual tastes led him to a profound study of Greek litera- ture. At the age of twenty-six he had occasion to undertake a journey to Rome, in order to plead for two imprisoned Pharisees, in the presence of the Empress Poppea, and he succeeded in obtaining their freedom. The Empress, who entertained a CH. X. FLAVIUS JOSEPIIUS. 277 friendly feeling toward the Jud^eans, loaded him with gifts. Rome itself could not fail to exercise a great influence upon the character of Josephus. The glitter of Nero's court, the busy life of the capital of the world, the immensity of all the im- perial institutions, so dazzled him that he thought the Roman empire would be an eternal one and that it was specially favored by Divine Providence. He did not see concealed beneath the purple and the gold the terrible disease of which that great empire was sickening. From that moment Josephus became a fervent adherent of the Roman rule. Filled with enthusiastic admiration for Rome, he must upon his return have found the proportions of Judaea humble and dwarfed. How sarcastically he must have smiled at the wild gestures of the frenzied Zealots who dreamt of expelling the Romans from Judaea ! Such an expectation appeared to him like the dream of a madman. With all the experiences that he had gathered in his travels he tried to shatter the revolutionary projects of the Zealots. But it was useless ; the people determined upon war, seized their weapons, and rose to revolt. Josephus, alarmed for his safety, took shelter with some of his adherents in the Temple, whence he emerged only upon hearing that the more moderate Zealots, under the leadership of Eleazer, were placed in control of affairs. Apprehensive that his well-known Roman proclivities might make him an object of suspicion, he simulated a desire for national liberty, whilst secretly rejoicing at the prospect of the advance of the Roman general Cestius, who, it was thought, would soon put an end to this mad struggle for freedom. But the result disappointed all his hopes. The retreat of Cestius resembled a defeat. Why Josephus, the devoted adherent of Rome, should have been entrusted with the governorship of the important province of Galilee is inexplicable. Probably his friend, the former high priest Joshua, 278 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. X son of Gamala, whose voice carried great weight in the Synhedrion, may have urged his claims, and Josephus' dissimulation may have led those about him to look upon him as a Zealot. But, at all events, the heroic bearing of the insurgents and the victory that they had gained over the army of Cestius, cannot have failed to make upon Jose- phus, as upon other plain and matter-of-fact Ju- daeans, a powerful impression. Entire separation from the empire of Rome appeared to him an impossible scheme ; but he may have hoped that some concessions were to be extorted from the imperial court ; that perhaps Judaea might be handed over to the control of Agrippa, and that he might be allowed to fill the post in Jerusalem. To Agrippa himself the revolt was not quite unwelcome, for he hoped to reap some benefit from it, and through the agency of Josephus he was able to act in a way which he himself could not have pursued as a vassal of Rome. Josephus had, in fact, been work- ing for Agrippa, and, in so far, there was nothing dishonest or traitorous in his conduct. Two coadjutors, Joaser and Judah, were sent by the Synhedrion to assist Josephus. They were both learned in the Law, and were described by him, now as pure and clean-handed, and again as open to bribery. But they were quite unimportant and soon disappeared from the scene of action. At first Josephus seems to have been anxious to promote the revolutionary ardor of the Galilaeans. He called a kind of Synhedrion together, consisting of seventy men of repute, after the fashion of the great council in Tiberias. He appointed seven judges in each city, and officers of the law in dif- ferent parts of Galilee. He raised an army of a hundred thousand men, armed and drilled them according to the Roman system, and inculcated order and discipline amongst his soldiers, qualities indispensable to a nation of warriors, but less im- CH. X. JOSEPHUS IN GALILEE. 279 portant to a people enthusiastic for liberty. He even created a corps of cavalry and supported them from his own means. He surrounded himself with a body-guard of five hundred mercenaries, who were disciplined to obey a sign from their master. He began to fortify a number of cities in Upper and Lower Galilee ; and stored them with provisions. Thus he seriously contemplated the defense of his province against Rome. Upon his arrival in Galilee, either inspired by the Synhedrion or impelled by his own ardor, Josephus carried his religious zeal to the extent of ordering the destruction of the palace inhabited by his ancestor Herod during the time of Augustus, where images of animals were worshiped in direct defiance of the Law. In order to carry out this design he invited the most distinguished men of Tiberias to meet him at Bethmaon, but during their discussion Jesus ben Sapphia set fire to the palace and divided the spoil amongst his followers. This displeased Josephus, who hastened into the town of Tiberias, and gathering up what remained of the plunder, handed it over into the custody of King Agrippa's officers. Peculiarly repugnant to Josephus was John of GIschala ; his untiring energy and intellectual superi- ority were enough to awaken the jealousy of the former, although Josephus, as the representative of the Synhedrion, assumed the higher position of the two. He took pains to place obstacles in the way of the patriot. Thus John was at first not permitted to carry off and sell the large quantity of corn stored by the Romans in Upper Galilee, the sale of which was to have enabled him to complete the fortifi- cation of his own city. Joaser and Judah finally extorted from Josephus the requisite authorization. It was on this occasion that John of Gischala was made painfully aware of the duplicity of the gov- ernor, which for the future he determined to baffle. Certain youths of a village called Dabaritta, near 28o IIISTUKV OF THE JEWS. CH. X. Mount Tabor, had waylaid and plundered the wife of one of the king's agents who was traveling through the land, and they brought the precious metals and rich garments which they had taken from her to Josephus, then at Tarichea. Out of too great a regard for the king, Josephus undertook to return this booty to him, at the same time falsely pretend- ing that he had sent it to Jerusalem for the national treasury. The inhabitants of the neighboring vil- lages, roused to angry displeasure at the news of Josephus' treachery, assembled at Tarichea in crowds. They were led by Jesus ben Sapphia, who came with the holy Book of the Law in his hand, charging the people, if not for their own sakes, at least for the honor of their sacred writings, to punish the traitor. Josephus' house was surrounded at daybreak by a furious throng, who would have burnt it down over his head had he not saved him- self by one of his ingenious falsehoods. He rent his clothes, poured ashes upon his head, hung a sword round his neck, and appeared as a suppliant in the arena of Tarichea. As soon as he could gain a hearing he made the Taricheans believe that he was not keeping the spoil, either for the use of Agrippa or for the advantage of Jerusalem, but that it was to enable him to fortify the walls of their own city. The credulous Taricheans, who readily believed this explanation, now declared themselves in favor of Josephus, and turned their weapons upon the discontented strangers. The governor meanwhile, under cover of the tumult, crept back to his own house, where, however, he was soon roused by some hundreds of the infuriated crowd (not Taricheans), who were utterly intractable, and were bent upon the destruction of his dwelling-place. Nothing daunted, Josephus appeared upon the roof, and begged of the ringleaders to enter and give him some reason for their conduct. The men allowed themselves to be tempted within the doors, where- CH. X. INTERNAL DISSENSIONS. 251 upon they were instantly seized, cruelly scourged, maimed, and then cast out to their followers, who, thinking Josephus must have some hidden force of men concealed within, departed in consternation. From that moment all hope of a manly defense of Galilee had to be abandoned. Josephus was like a demon of discord, to whose lot had fallen the task of promoting a spirit of harmony amongst the people. Galilee was divided into two parties, the one com- posed of the more moderate inhabitants of that province, who were the adherents of the governor, the other numbering the fiery patriots, who could no longer doubt his duplicity, and had selected John as their leader. The two leaders hated each other cordially, but equaled each other in craft and dissimulation. When John became aware that the greater num- ber of the Galilseans were under the impression that Josephus was a truthful and reliable man, and were supporting him with all their might, he sent his brother Simon, with a hundred chosen followers, to the Synhedrion at Jerusalem, there to lodge a complaint against the governor, begging of the Great Council to recall him from his post. The President of the Synhedrion, Simon ben Gamaliel, who was a friend of John, and who entirely discredited the sincerity of Josephus, as well as Anan, the former high priest, supported this charge, and decreed that four envoys be sent to Galilee, with orders that Josephus lay down his office, and that they be in- vested with the power of bringing him, alive or dead, to Jerusalem. The larger communities of Tiberias, Sepphoris, and Gabara were instructed by the Synhedrion to afford no protection to Josephus, who was an enemy to his country, but to support John of Gischala in his stead. Once more Josephus was in great peril. But, as usual, he saved himself by his own ready wit and crafty policy. On the one hand, he would not give 282 HISTORY OP^ THE JEWS. CH. X. up the post which had become dear to him ; and, on the other, he did not wish to disobey the orders of the Synhedrion. As soon as the decrees of the Great Council were made known to him, through his father, who was Hving in Jerusalem, he took his precautionary measures. He pretended to be in active preparation for a revolt from Rome, and perplexed the envoys by the evasive replies he gave them, assuring them, with a resigned air, when they ordered him to depart instantly for Jersualem, that he was more than ready to lay down his office. But all the while he was inciting the Galilaeans to hatred of the envoys, who, in traveling from one town to another, found that they were not further- ing their mission, but that, on the contrary, they were often in danger of being roughly handled by Josephus' friends. Weary of this useless journey- ing, the envoys, on the advice of John of Gischala, sent secret messengers throughout Galilee, declar- ing Josephus outlawed. A traitor revealed this resolution to the governor. With an energy deserving of a better cause, Josephus sent his troops to guard the passes leading from the Galilaean towns to Jerusalem, and had the messen- gers seized and brought into his presence. He then summoned all his devoted followers (who came streaming from all the small towns and villages of Galilee) to appear armed before him, and told them he was the victim of a fiendish plot. This was enough to lash them into a frenzy of rage, and they would have torn the envoys to pieces had not Josephus, with wonderfully assumed generosity, quieted their wrath. He then sent for some of the most simple-minded and credulous men of his province whom he easily persuaded into going to Jerusalem, there to extol his government, to en- treat of the Synhedrion to leave their beloved governor at his post, and to recall the hated envoys. Meanwhile, these latter, finding they could achieve nothing in Upper Galilee, withdrew from that part CH. X. DUPLICITY OF JOSEPHUS. 283 of the province and appeared in Tiberias. But Josephus was there before them, ready to frustrate all their plans. In their extreme vexation and per- plexity, they had commanded the people to keep a day of fasting and humiliation, when prayer was to be offered up for Divine help, without which no earthly weapons were of avail. The people answered to this call by assembling in great numbers in the arena of Tiberias, a place capable of holding many thousands. Although every one was supposed to be unarmed, Josephus and his soldiers managed to conceal weapons under their cloaks. Prayers for Divine help were followed by angry discussions ; at last, words gave place to action, and Josephus' fol- lowers, drawing their arms, rushed frantically upon his enemies. The populace sided with Josephus, who was once more saved from deadly peril. Mean- while, the Galilaean messengers who had been sent to Jerusalem produced so favorable an impression for Josephus in that city, that the envoys were re- called, and the governor reinstated in his official post. Josephus revenged himself upon his enemies by sending the envoys back to Jerusalem in chains, thus treating the Synhedrion with contempt. But whilst he was bringing civil war upon Galilee, contempt upon the Synhedrion, disunion amongst the patriots, whilst he was urging the important city of Tiberias to rebellion, the Galilaean capital, Sep- phoris, with its Roman proclivities, had ample time to make overtures to the Empire. Josephus must bear the eternal opprobrium of having un- manned and broken the one strong bulwark of Judaea, the vigorous and warlike Galilee, and this he accomplished through indecision, egotism, want of tact, and above all, his extraordinary duplicity. He certainly did strengthen some of the fortresses, or rather he did not prevent their garrisons from doing so, but when the Romans appeared in the land they found neither an army nor a nation to 284 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. X. Oppose them. Every fortress had to depend upon its own resources. The Galilseans, without confi- dence in their leader, and exhausted by constant strife, were becoming self-seeking if not cowardly. It would indeed be difficult for us to believe the numerous instances recorded of craft and duplicity on the part of Josephus, had he not dwelt upon them himself with unexampled shamelessness. All that had been gained during the four months' rebellion in Jerusalem was lost during the five fatal months of his governorship of Galilee (from Nov., 66, to March, 67), and this was before the enemy had even threatened to appear, for the Romans during that time had been inactive in Judaea. The Emperor Nero was courting popular favor in Greece, by ap- pearing in the arena as singer, player, and charioteer. Whilst engaged in these engrossing pursuits, there came upon him like a thunderbolt the news of the rising in Jud^a and the defeat of the Roman army under Cestius. Nero trembled, for the revolution in Judaea might be the precursor of grave events. The emperor was then apprised of the death of his general Cestius, and none could tell whether he had met with a natural death, or had died heartbroken at his defeat. Nero selected as his successor Flavius Vespasian, who had won his laurels fighting against the Britons, and who was known to be one of the ablest generals of his time. But so great was the alarm felt at the Judaean rebellion and its possible consequences, that Licinius Mucianus was chosen as special governor of Syria, and ordered to quell all dangerous symp- toms of disaffection that might appear among the Parthians. Vespasian was not in the emperor's favor at that time, and Nero would far rather have given some other general his post ; but the emperor had no choice, for the ability of Vespasian was un- questionable, and Judaea required a strong hand. Vespasian started from Greece in the winter season, CH. X. VESPASIAN. 285 and commenced his preparations for the campaign in Ptolemais. His son Titus, who first won re- nown in fighting against the Judaeans, brought two legions from Alexandria, the fifth and tenth, those wild Decumani whose cruelty, already experienced by the Alexandrian Judaeans, was now for the first time to be felt by their Palestinean brethren. Ves- pasian was met in Ptolemais by all who wished to express their feelings of friendliness towards the Romans ; amongst others came Agrippa with his sister Berenice. Agrippa had been accused by the Tyrians of being in secret league with the rebellious Judaeans, and was therefore regarded with some suspicion by Vespasian ; but he came at the head of his troops as a loyal subject-prince, whilst his beautiful sister Berenice, still beautiful in spite of having passed her first youth, captivated the gen- eral's son Titus, and kept him enslaved for many years to come. Vespasian's army, consisting of Roman troops and mercenaries, amounted to more than 50,000 men, besides the countless horde that was in the habit of following in the wake of armies. Early in the spring the army was equipped, and the cam- paign began by the despatch of small bands to clear the way of Judaean scouts, on the roads lead- ing to the fortified places. Vespasian, far more prudent than his predecessor Cestius, instead of displaying great energy, carried on the campaign from beginning to end with extreme caution, seek- ing to cut the ground, step by step, from under his enemies' feet. Josephus and his troops were slowly but surely driven back ; in open battle he was often shamefully defeated, for his men had no confidence in his generalship, and his army literally melted away at the sight of the enemy. With how dif- ferent a spirit were the followers of John of Gischala inspired ! As soon as the hostile forces approached Jotapata, the inhabitants of that city offered des- 286 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. X. pcrate resistance, and although they could not breal^ through the serried ranks of the Romans, they fought so bravely that they put the vanguard to flight. Vespasian determined upon effecting the subjec- tion of Galilee before turning his steps towards the capital, and to accomplish this purpose he marched upon the fortresses in the north of that province, Gabara and Jotapata. The first, insufficiently forti- fied, was soon taken and burnt. The entire popu- lation of the garrison were put to the sword, to avenge the defeat of the Romans at Jerusalem. The unfortunate inhabitants of the entire district suffered a similar fate, for they were either cruelly butchered or sold into slavery. The war now became one of revenge and extermination. But Josephus remained far from the scene of action in his capital at Tiberias, which at his flight thither was filled with terror. Josephus would gladly have gone over to the enemy, but some remote feeling of shame prevented him from taking this unpardonable step at the beginning of the war. He proceeded to lay a state- ment of the condition of his unhappy province before the Synhedrion, demanded instruction as to his movements, whether he was to resist the enemy (in which case he would require reinforcements), or whether he was to enter into negotiations with Ves- pasian. The province of Galilee, although far more thickly populated than Judsea, counting more than three millions of souls, now already required military aid, so terribly had it been weakened by Josephus' inefficient management. Vespasian marched from Gabara to Jotapata, but his troops had to make their way with the greatest difficulty, for the Judaeans had endeavored to bar the narrow passes and render the road impassable. The rock upon which the fortress of Jotapata was built Is surrounded by steep and lofty hills, from CH. X. THE WAR IN GALILEE. 287 which it is separated by abrupt precipices. There existed only one practicable entrance to the for- tress, and this was on the north side, but it was firmly protected by a high wall bristling with towers. Upon this wall were gathered all possible instru- ments for repelling the enemy ; great pieces of rock, slings for throwing stones, bows and arrows, and weapons of countless sorts. Against this one approach all the efforts of the Romans were directed. They confronted it with sixty storming machines, from which, in one uninterrupted volley, poured spears, stones, and slings containing ignitible matter. But the besieged fought with such bitter- ness, and with such cool contempt of death, that even the Romans grew weary. The Galilseans not only repulsed the storming parties, and often destroyed their machinery, but they also made suc- cessful sorties. The siege lasted more than forty days, when at last, through the treachery of a Gali- laean, the fortress fell. Thus the Romans were able to surprise the besieged at daybreak, when they fell upon the exhausted sentinels, and then put the garrison to the sword. Many, however, of their devoted victims, rather than fall into the hands of their terrible adversaries, sought death by flinging themselves over the walls, or by falling on their own weapons. Forty thousand men lost their lives in this siege, and more than a thousand women and children were sold into slavery, whilst the fortress was razed to the ground. But Jotapata had shown her unhappy country how to fall with honor and glory. A few days previously Japha (Japhia) had been taken, its men, both old and young, slaughtered, and its women and children sold as slaves. Josephus had been actually within the walls of the fortress of Jotapata throughout the siege. He had arrived from Tiberias at the first news of the enemy's approach, and placed himself at the head of the garrison. But divining rightly enough that all resistance would eventually prove hopeless, he had 288 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. X. attempted to abandon his people, and had only been prevented from doing this by the besieged. When the Romans entered the fortress, Josephus sought concealment in a huge cistern, in which hiding-place he found forty of his own soldiers. When their retreat was discovered, Josephus was called upon to give himself up to the Romans. This exactly coin- cided with his own wishes, as his person was to be protected ; but his companions, pointing their swords against his breast, swore that sooner than allow him to dishonor the Judaeans by his cowardice they would instantly take his life. Entirely at their mercy, he consented to their proposal that they should all die then and there. Each soldier swore that he would fall by the hand of one of his companions, and each in turn fell heroically. But Josephus broke his word to the dead as he had broken it to the living. He and one comrade being the only survivors, he succeeded, partly by persuasion and partly by force, in disarming his companion, and in delivering himself into the hands of the Romans. Vespasian treated him with extreme courtesy, as if he had never looked upon him as an enemy. Although he bore the semblance of a prisoner, he was allowed to wear a robe of honor. Vespasian loaded him with presents, Titus was his constant companion, and he was permitted to select a wife from the cap- tive maidens. Joppa's turn to fall before the conquerors soon followed upon that of Japha and Jotapata, whilst the people of Tiberias, thoroughly discouraged by the conduct of Josephus, were not long in opening the gates of their city to the Romans. Thus, one year after the revolt in Jerusalem, the greater part of the province of Galilee, which had defended itself with all the fire of patriotism, with all the zeal of a free country, and with all the enthu- siasm of its faith, was ruined, depopulated, and more thoroughly than ever made subject to its conquerors. It was upon this occasion that Agrippa proved CH. X. CONQUEST OF GALILEE. 289 that his conduct to the Judceans was not solely in- fluenced by his fear of the Romans. For Vespasian gave him free control over them in his own pro- vince, and he chose to sell those unfortunate people into captivity, when he might either have chastised them or given them their liberty. The Galilsean Zealots were in possession of only three fortified places — Gamala, Mount Tabor, and Gischala — in the extreme north. Joseph of Gamala and Chares were the leaders of the insurgents in Gamala. All in vain had one of Agrippa's officers besieged the place for some months ; the Zealots held out, until at last Vespasian with his force ap- proached the fortress. The story of the siege con- stitutes one of the most heroic pages in the whole account of the war. For many days the besieged fought from their walls in a manner worthy of the first great Zealot Judas. At the end of three weeks the battering-rams of the Romans opened a breach in the walls, through which the enemy crept. As the besieged retired, their assailants followed them into a labyrinth of narrow streets, and found them- selves suddenly attacked from the house-tops. The Romans tried to save themselves by clambering on some low-roofed houses, but these were too weak to bear their weight and gave way, burying the men in their ruins. The besieged, then seized upon huge stones — their whole city, so to speak — and hurled them upon their enemies* heads, so that flight was impossible. This victory, falling upon the Feast of Taber- nacles, was a glorious day for the men of Gamala ; but it was dearly bought, for the corpses of the Romans lay upon the bodies of many Judsean warriors, who could ill be spared. Chares, one of their leaders, was mortally wounded. At last the Romans, after secretly mining one of the fortified towers, made a feint of attacking it ; the Judaeans rushed to the battlements, and were preparing for defense, when the walls gave way and fell with a 290 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. X. fearful crash, burying the besieged, amongst whom was the sole remaining leader, Joseph, the son of the midwife. The siege was now practically over, for the Romans poured in, and slaughtered every man they met. Nearly five thousand died by their own hands ; only two maidens were left out of the whole population of Gamala. Meanwhile the fortress of Mount Tabor was taken by the strategy of Placidus. It stood isolated on an almost perpendicular height, rising sixteen hundred feet from the plain of Jezreel. From its position it was invincible. But Placidus tempted the greater part of the garrison out of the fortress by feigned flight. When his pursuers were close upon him, his cavalry wheeled around and threw themselves upon the unfortunate Judseans, of whom some few fled to Jerusalem, whilst the weakened fortress opened her gates to the enemy. The small city of Gischala, garrisoned by very few men, under the leadership of John, could not possibly hold out against the Romans. Upon the approach of Titus, John begged for a twenty-four hours' truce before the capitulation of his fortress, ostensibly to preserve the sanctity of the Sabbath, Upon the acquiescence of the Roman general, he made his escape from the city, followed by many thousands of his people. On the morrow Gis- chala capitulated, her gates were thrown open, and her walls razed to the ground. But, indignant at the conduct of the Judcean leader, Titus ordered him to be hotly pursued. John succeeded, how- ever, in reaching Jerusalem with a remnant of his army, whilst numbers of fugitives of both sexes and of every age were captured and massacred by the Roman soldiery. This was the last death-struggle of besieged Galilee. But the Romans were so thoroughly exhausted by those desperate en- counters, and their ranks were so much thinned by their long warfare, that Vespasian was obliged to declare a truce to hostilities. CHAPTER XI. DESTRUCTION OF THE JUDiEAN STATE. Galilasan Fugitives in Jerusalem— Condition of the Capital — Internal Contests — The Idumxans — Eleazer ben Simon, John of Gischala, and Simon Bar-Giora — Progress of the War — Affairs in Rome — Vespasian created Emperor — Siege of Jerusalem by Titus — Heroic Defense — Famine — Fall of the Fortress Antonia — Burning of the Temple— Destruction of the City — Number of the Slain. 67-70 c. E. Jerusalem was the rallying point of all the Gall- Isean fugitives. Thither many thousands had been brought by John of Gischala, and thither numbers fled from Tiberias ; there, where the last stroke of the nation's destiny was to fall, patriotism, ambition, revenge, and despair were all duly represented. The GalUaean Zealots' burning account of their desperate resistance to the Roman arms, and of the massacre of the weak and defenseless by the soldiers of Titus, had stirred the blood of the people of Jerusalem. The despondent drew fresh courage, and the fearless still greater ardor from the words of these enthusiasts. The defenders of their country, daily growing in numbers, and heroic In deed as well as in word, considered themselves Invincible. When the Zealots looked upon the fortresses of their capital, the last shadow of alarm melted away. The Romans, they declared, must have wings to take those walls and those towers, whose defenders were iron-hearted men. Had It not cost Rome a desperate struggle to conquer Galilee ; what then had the strongly fortified capital to fear? This overwrought condition of the Judaeans was stimu- lated by their ardent belief that the Messianic period, so long foretold by the prophets, was actually dawn- 292 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XI ing, when every other nation of the earth would be given into the dominion of Israel. In spite of the loss of Galilee and of its brave defenders, coins were struck, bearing- this inscription : " In the first or second year of the deliverance or freedom of Israel," and on the reverse side : " Simon, Prince of Israel." But the Zealots were indulging in fatal self-confidence, almost as dangerous to their cause as the treachery of Josephus and the conquest of Galilee. Never had Jerusalem been so populous, so beau- tiful, and so strong as at the moment when she was doomed to destruction ; it was as if she was to learn the bitter lesson that outward strength and outward glory alone are of but little avail. Within the fortifications, the circumference of Jerusalem was nearly one geographical mile in extent, embra- cing the suburbs of Bethany and Bethphage, where the worshipers who came up thrice a year to the holy city found shelter. It is difficult to compute the exact population of Jerusalem. From one source we learn that it contained six hundred thousand souls ; but then we must further take into account the numbers that had streamed into the city for protection. The Zealots had not succeeded in imparting their enthusiasm to the inhabitants of the country towns ; many of the wealthiest and shrewdest, seeing no possible advantage to themselves in the continua- tion of the war, were ready to capitulate. Thus only the very young and men of no worldly posi- tion devoted themselves to the cause of the revo- lutionists. Every community, every family, was divided against itself, some clamoring for war and others demanding peace ; but as the former had no rallying point in their own towns, they all sought kindred spirits in Jerusalem, and increased the number of Zealots in that city. The fortress of Masada alone, commanded by Eleazer ben Jair, was CH. XI. SIMON BAR-GIORA. 293 a hotbed of insurgents ; it was the Jerusalem of the Sicarii, who were strengthened by the leadership of Simon Bar-Giora. This man, who was to play a leading part in the war, was remarkable for his physical strength, and distinguished for his reckless courage, a quality which did not desert him until his last breath. At the flight of the Roman troops under Cestius he followed amongst the very first upon the heels of the fugitives. He then gath- ered a number of free-lances about him, and led a wild life in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea, namely in Acrabattine. When the inhabitants of that district complained in Jerusalem that he im- periled their safety, the moderate party of the Zea- lots sent a troop against him, obliging him to take refuge in Masada. It was from this place that he and the Sicarii undertook armed expeditions into Idumaea for the purpose of cattle-lifting and forage- hunting. This roused the Idumaeans to retaliate by opposing his force with a large army numbering twenty thousand men. These rival hosts outdid each other in patriotism, fierce courage, and reck- lessness. The stream of patriots daily pouring into Jeru- salem fanned the excitement and warlike energy of the inhabitants, embittered as they were by Jose- phus' duplicity and defection. For, as long as the Judaeans believed that he was buried under the ruins of Jotapata, his name was mentioned with reverence, but as soon as the tidings spread that he was in the Roman camp, and treated with consid- eration by the Roman generals, their feelings of pity were changed into violent hatred. The ultra- Zealots were filled with suspicion and distrust, and they looked upon all who were not in favor of ex- treme measures as traitors to the cause. Eleazer ben Simon, the leader of the Zealots, and a man of great penetration, nursed a special feeling of hatred against the Synhedrion, a body that bound 294 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XI. him, valiant and aspiring patriot as he was, to a life of inaction. And who presided in the Synhedrion ? Josephus' friend and chosen companion, Joshua ben Gamala, who had not attempted to depose tlie Gov- ernor of Galilee, even when his duplicity was clearly proved. And who was the treasurer? Antipas, a Herodian, a near relative of King Agrippa. Was it not more than likely that the Synhedrion and the Herodians would throw open the gates of their city at the approach of the Romans ? This was the pre- vailing feeling of the Zealots, and they believed themselves strong enough to take the government into their own hands, and by desperate exertions to prosecute the war undisturbed. It was not surprising that from day to day the feeling of enmity between the Zealots and the more moderate Synhedrists should grow in intensity, for it was a war of life and death in which they were engaged. Matters were brought to a crisis by the Zealots falling upon and imprisoning those persons whose relationship to the royal house and whose doubtful opinions seemed to proclaim them to be secret conspirators. But they did not halt at this step. They degraded those belonging to the family of the high-priest from their position, and replaced them by representatives chosen from the people. They determined upon divesting the high-priest of his office (of late years the Romans had held the conferring of this dignity in their own hands), and raising to this exalted rank an unknown priest of the name of Phineas ben Samuel, of the city of Aphta. It was said of Phineas, probably to dis- parage him, that he had originally been a stone- mason or an agriculturist. He was brought by the Zealots with due solemnity from his homely sur- roundings, was invested with the priestly garments, and was materially aided by his rich friends to main- tain the dignity of his state, whilst Matthias ben Theophilus, who had been chosen high-priest by CH. XI. CIVIL WAR. 295 Agrippa, was deposed. The Synhedrists, whose leaders belonged principally to the high-priesthood, and who looked upon the instalment of Phineas as an outrage to their sacred calling, were beside them- selves with indignation at this step. Anan, whose audacity of speech and great wealth entitled him to a prominent position in the Synhedrion, induced the citizens of Jerusalem to rebel, and to attack the Zealots sword in hand, and thus the civil war com- menced. The moderate party, who were numeri- cally the stronger, drove their antagonists step by step out of every district of the city up to the Mount of the Temple, where they forced them to take refuge within the second wall of the citadel. Mean- while, a rumor spread that Anan had called upon the Roman general for help. This was enough to bring John of Gischala with his troops to the gates of the capital. Twenty thousand Idumaeans, men who rejoiced in an appeal to reckless and savage sol- diery, under the leadership of John, Simon, Phineas, and Jacob, appeared likewise before Jerusalem, ready to wield their swords in favor of the Zealots who were besieged in the Temple. Anan prepared for the assault by barring the gates and doubling his sentinels. But in the ensuing night his troops were seized with a panic. A terrific storm of thunder, lightning, and drenching rain raged over Jerusalem. The Idumaeans, men of bold character and hardy nature, did not flinch from their posi- tion, but many of the sentinels en the walls sought shelter from the violence of the elements and de- serted their posts. The ever-watchful Zealots within the fortifications were thus able to communicate with their Idumaean allies and to effect their entrance. The besiegers threw themselves upon some of the unsuspecting watch, whilst the Zealots overpowered others. The citizens were roused to arms and a terrible battle ensued. The moderate party laid their weapons down in despair, as the Idumaeans 296 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XI. pouring into the city massacred all those whom they suspected of being friendly to Anan. The morning sun dawned upon a hideous mass of corpses, for more than 8000 dead bodies were found in the city. The Zealots were now the victors, and their reign of terror began. They committed to trial, not without some show of justice, and then executed, all persons suspected of having been concerned in the conspiracy. Anan and Joshua ben Gamala were necessarily amongst the victims, and the bit- terness which was felt towards them was so great that their unburied bodies were thrown to the dogs. The Synhedrion naturally ceased to exist, so many of its members having been executed ; but a new Synhedrion seems to have been called into being by the Zealots, no longer of aristocratic and high- priestly elements, but rather of a democratic order, also numbering seventy members. The Idumseans were as heartily disliked by the Zealots as they were by the moderate party, and many of them were courteously persuaded to with- draw from Jerusalem. Meanwhile the reign of terror continued, and amongst others fell Niger, the hero from Percea, probably because he had upheld the Synhedrists. In fact, this one case corroborates the general rule that every revolution devours its oriofinators. For Nigger was one of those who had strained every nerve to support the first rismg amongst the Judaeans, and his death was a blot upon the rule of the Zealots. In order to check the anarchy which followed the overthrow of the Syn- hedrion, John of Gischala threw himself boldly into the front ranks, and was warmly supported by the Galilsean fugitives. His heroic bearing soon secured him the following of the most fiery of the Judaeans, whose devotion to himself rivaled that of his own Galilaeans. John was born to be a leader of men ; for not only was he dauntless as a commander, but he excelled others in penetration and fertility of CH. XI. POLICY OF THE ROMANS. 297 invention. This superiority naturally awakened the jealousy of the Zealot leaders in Jerusalem, who were not a little afraid of his becoming sole dictator and lawgiver. Meanwhile the Romans were remaining abso- lutely quiet. Vespasian was far too prudent to attack the lion in his lair, in spite of the repeated assurances of his followers that the conquest of Jerusalem would be an easy task. He chose to wait until the Judaeans, weakened by their internal strife, would be entirely at his mercy. His troops, after spending an inactive winter (67-68), opened a new campaign in the spring against Persea and many dis- tant parts of Judoea, where thousands were slain in obstinate and hard fighting. Vespasian returned to Caesarea at the end of this campaign, and left Jerusalem undisturbed for two years. He was led to this course by two different events : the fresh out- burst of civil war in Jerusalem, the death of Nero, and the fact that his successor had been chosen and triumphantly installed by the Spanish and Gallic legions. The lawless Simon Bar-Giora, who had kindled the war in Jerusalem, could not rest in Masada, where the Sicarii had received him, for he was ambitious and eager for action. Thus he left the fortress, and collecting a number of slaves, to whom he held out promises of freedom and plunder, appeared before Jerusalem, ready to play an im- portant part in the war. But the Zealots were afraid of him, and wished to make him powerless. They did not dare meet him in open battle, for he had already been their conqueror ; so they waited in ambush, and made his wife and some of his soldiery prisoners, hoping to crush him by this cowardly action. But Bar-Giora was a stern- hearted warrior, and, in retaliation, threw himself upon the defenseless Judaeans who ventured outside the walls to procure the necessaries of life. The 298 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH XI Judaeans, alarmed at this revenge, sent back his wife, while Bar-Giora was more determined than ever to make himself master of the capital. Day and night he waited and watched for some means of ingress, and at last he obtained what he wished through the party of the aristocrats. In spite of the loss of their most prominent men, this party had not really ceased to exist, but was secretly working to destroy the power of the Zealots. At their head stood the high-priest Matthias, the son of Boethus, and others belonging to the great priestly families. They knew how to enlist upon their side many of the populace who were unable to leave the city, and who were afraid of the con- sequences of the civil war. In league with the Idumaeans, they suddenly made a well-directed attack upon the Zealots, over whom they gained a signal, but only a momentary advantage, for, recov- ering themselves from this defeat, the Zealots assembled upon the Mount of the Temple, and pre- pared to show a bold front to their opponents. The latter, much discomfited, appealed to Bar- Giora for assistance, and thus a fatal division was brought within the very walls of Jerusalem. With the entry of this commander, civil war began in its most terrible form. Bar-Giora com- manded his followers to surround the Mount of the Temple, where the Zealots lay entrenched. From the galleries and from the roofs the besieged were able not only to defend themselves, but also to repulse their assailants. In spite of his impatience, Bar-Giora was obliged to withdraw and to take up a safer position in the town. Vespasian, who was informed of all these move- ments, quietly bided his time, convinced that the losing side would sooner or later demand his help, and that then victory would be easy. He felt indis- posed, through various circumstances, to undertake a long and difficult siege, but was inclined rather to en. XI. OTHO AND VITELLIUS. 299 keep his hands free for the final struggle. Nero had ended his shameful life with a shameful death (68), and Galba, who succeeded him as emperor, held the reins of power with an aged and trembling grasp. Old and childless, he had to think of choosing a successor. At this critical time, when every day was pregnant with some important event, Vespasian did not think it prudent to devote him- self to the siege of Jerusalem. He adopted a waiting, watchful policy, and sent his son Titus with King Agrippa to Rome to receive the new em- peror, and, as people said, to be adopted by him as heir to his vast empire. But when Titus heard, upon arriving in Corinth, that Galba had been murdered (5 Jan., 69), and that two emperors had been elected by the legions in his stead — Otho in Rome, and Vitellius in Lower Germany, he hurried back to Judsea, not only buoyed up by the secret hopes of seeing his father created emperor in the general confusion which was pending, but also attracted by a powerful magnet, the beautiful Princess Berenice, who, in spite of living according to orthodox Judaean custom, did not hesitate to carry on an intrigue with the heathen Titus. Otho could retain possession of the purple only for one hundred days, at the end of which time he found himself forced to fight against Vitellius, whom the German legions had borne upon their shields, by way of teaching the Spanish legions that they were fittest to choose and instal an emperor. They also wished to make it evident that the emperor need not owe his election only to Rome and the Praetorian Guard, but should be the choice also of the legions in the provinces. Vitellius' army gained the victory, and Otho, after brave resistance, fell by his own hand. Meanwhile Vespasian was dreaming of the moment when he should drape himself in the stained imperial mantle, but he hesitated before putting his scheme into exe- 300 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XI. cution. He wished to be driven to it. Partly, he feared Licinius Mucianus, governor of Syria, who commanded more legions than he did, and with whom he was not on very friendly terms. But Vespasian's son Titus, who made no secret of his ambition, won over Mucianus to urge his father into allowing himself to be proclaimed emperor. It was also absolutely essential to obtain the sup- port of Tiberius Alexander, the son of the Alabarch and the governor of that most important province — Egypt. This move in the great game was due to the hand of a woman. The Princess Berenice was a friend of the Egyptian governor, and she was furthering the imperial election as an affair of the heart. Titus' love for her was so openly avowed that all her court were convinced that he had promised her marriage. It was therefore not unnatural that she should employ all the means suggested by her imagination, and made possible by her personal charms, to attain this end. The most important step was to gain Tiberius Alex- ander's support for Vespasian, and in this she succeeded admirably. The governor of Egypt responded to her appeal by making his legions swear fealty to him whom they now called emperor. A few days later the legions stationed in Judaea, and the Syrian troops under the command of Mucianus, also tendered their allegiance to Vespasian. The possession of the coveted purple was enough to make Vespasian for the time being forgetful of the conquest of Judsea. Accompanied by his son Titus, he repaired to Egy^pt, where they received the news of Vitellius' death (Dec, 69), an event which had drawn forth but the contemptuous scorn of his people. And how did Jerusalem spend the two years of peace that Vespasian granted her ? There were originally four distinct factions in the city, without counting the more moderate. These were the CH. XI. JUD^AN FACTIONS. 3OI Jerusalem Zealots under Eleazer ben Simon and Simon ben Ezron, consisting only of two thousand four hundred members, the Galilaean Zealots under John, numbering six thousand armed men, the Simonists and Sicarii outnumbering the rest by their army of ten thousand, and the Idumaeans under Jacob ben Sosa and Simon ben Kathla, a troop of five thousand men. These twenty-four thousand heroic patriots might have put their valor to some account in one decisive battle could they but have acted in harmony. But not one of their leaders was capable of sacrificing his own ambition to the general good. The followers of Eleazer claimed precedence on the grounds of their being natives of Jerusalem and of having thus given the first impulse to the movement. John insisted upon his superiority on account of his quickness of per- ception and readiness in action, and Simon felt revengeful towards the Zealots, who had dared quell his disorder. Members of the four different factions were perpetually meeting and fighting in the streets, giving the enemy both the time and the opportunity to devastate the surrounding country ; for it was almost certain that no one faction would dare oppose the Romans, and equally certain that the four factions would not combine in arms against them. Titus, the new heir to the imperial throne, at last made his appearance before Jerusalem (February, 70), fully expecting that he would be able to force the city into submission ; for it was almost a reproach to the Romans that this rebellious capital should have maintained her independence for four years. The prestige of the new imperial house seemed in some measure to depend upon the fall of Jerusalem ; a protracted siege would necessarily imply weakness in the military power of Vespasian and his son. Although Titus was eagerly looking forward to the subjection of Judaea, he could not complete his 302 HISTORY OK THE JEWS. CH. XI. preparations for the siege of Jerusalem before the spring. He collected an army of not less than eighty thousand men, who came, bringing with them the largest number of battering machines that had been used in the warfare of that time. Three traitors amongst the Judaeans were most useful to him in his laborious undertakings — King Agrippa, who not only brought a contingent of men, but who also tried to influence the inhabitants of Jerusalem in favor of the Romans ; Tiberius Alexander, who sealed his apostasy from Judaism by going into battle against his own nation ; and Josephus, the constant companion of Titus, who, from being a prisoner, had become a guide in the country which he knew so well. Titus was not experienced enough in the art of war, and so bade the Judsean apostate stand by his side, and gave him the command of his own body-guard (Prsefectus prsetorio). But the hostile factions had drawn together when this new danger threatened them. Shortly before the Pass- over festival numbers of devoted men streamed into Jerusalem to defend their holy city. The elders and chiefs had sent messengers to the people living in the outlying provinces, praying for help, and their request was not made in vain. The walls of Jeru- salem were fortified more strongly than ever. At last Titus assembled his huge army from all sides and encamped at Scopus-Zophim, north of Jerusalem. He summoned in the first instance the inhabitants to surrender ; he demanded only sub- mission, acknowledgment of the Roman rule, and payment of the taxes. Eager as he was to return to Rome, where all the enjoyments belonging to his great position were awaiting him, he was ready to deal gently with the Judaeans. Besides which, his devotion to a Judaean princess, who, in spite of her errors, still clung faithfully to the holy city, made him anxious to spare that city from destruction. But the Judaeans refused all negotiation. They had CH. XI. BEGINNING OF THE SIEGE. 303 sworn to defend their city with their Hves, and would not hear of surrender. Then the siege began in earnest. All the gardens and groves to the north and west of Jerusalem, the first points of the attack, were unsparingly destroyed. Titus, anxious to reconnoitre the ground, advanced with a few followers to the north wall, where he nar- rowly escaped being taken prisoner. The first feat of arms upon the part of the Judaeans was crowned with success, and seemed a good omen for the future. A few days later they surprised and totally discomfited the Tenth Legion, who were pitching their tents on the Mount of Olives. But, unfortu- nately, this skirmish proved fruitless, for the Ju- daeans were always obliged to retreat to their fort- resses, not, however, without having convinced the Romans that they would have a desperate foe to encounter. The besiegers succeeded in pitching their camps on three sides of the city, and in raising their engines against the outer wall. Titus com- menced operations during the Passover festival (March or April, 70), when he believed that the Judaeans would not be willing to fight. But as soon as the engines were in working order, they rushed like demons from their retreat, destroying the bat- tering-rams, scattering the workmen, and bringing alarm and confusion upon the enemy. Not only the Zealots, but all who could carry arms took part in the defense, the women setting splendid examples of heroism to the men. The besieged threw masses of stone upon their assailants, poured boiling oil upon their heads, seized the ponderous missiles that were hurled into the city, and turned them into tools of destruction against the Romans. But the latter succeeded in repairing their broken battering- rams, and in forcing the Judaeans, after fifteen days of conflict, back from the outer wall. This wall, the scene of a desperate struggle, was at last taken by the Romans, who, while making themselves masters of it, seized the suburban town of Bezetha, 304 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XI. The skirmishes were now carried on daily, and with increasing bitterness. After seventeen days of unremitting labor, the Romans succeeded in raising their banks opposite the Antonine tower. But John of Gischala and some heroic followers of Bar-Giora, creeping through a subterranean pas- sage, destroyed these works by setting fire to them. With the ever-increasing danger grew the heroism of the besieged. All Josephus' persuasive words, prompted by Titus, were useless. There were but two courses left open to them — victory or death. At the very outset of the siege they had learned what they would have to expect from the Romans. Titus, surnamed " Delight of all Mankind," crucified, at times, five hundred of his prisoners in a day. Again, he would send them back into the city after cutting off their hands. He was, however, forced to acknowledge to himself that the siege would be one of long duration. But the horrors of famine were soon to come to his assistance. All egress from and ingress into the besieged city being rigorously prevented, the provisions began to fail amongst the thickly-crowded populace. Houses and streets were filled with unburied corpses, and the pangs of star- vation seemed to destroy all feelings of pity in the unfortunate survivors. The prospect — a terrible one indeed — of a lingering death sent numbers of deserters to the Romans, where they met with a pitiful fate. As the number of these unfortunate fugitives increased, the Zealots treated those whom they suspected of defection with still greater severity. A conspiracy being discovered amongst Bar-Giora's followers, that leader relentlessly punished the guilty with death. They were all beheaded in full view of the Roman camp, amongst them being Matthias Boethus, of priestly family. But in spite of the watchfulness of the Zealots, they were unable to circumvent the traitors in all their designs. Those who were secretly friendly CH. XI. STUBBORN DEFENSE. 3O5 to Rome shot off on their arrow-heads written accounts concerning the state of the city, which fell into the enemy's camp. The Zealots struggled manfully to prevent the Romans from completing their earthworks, but at the end of twenty-one days, the battering-rams were again pointing at the Antonine tower. The wall surrounding the fortress fell at length under the tremendous blows from with- out. What was the surprise and horror of the Romans, however, when they discovered that a second and inner wall had been erected behind the one they had succeeded in destroying. They tried in vain to storm it, the Judaeans repulsing a noc- turnal attack. The battle lasted until the following morning. It was at about this time that the daily sacrifices ceased, on account of the scarcity of the animals. Titus seized this opportunity again to summon the besieged to surrender, but the mere sight of the interpreter who bore the message aroused the Indignation of the besieged. John of Gischala replied that the holy city could not be destroyed, and that God held her fate In His hands. The Judaeans then withdrew to their last point of defense, the Temple. The battering-rams were raised against the sacred walls. The unfortunate people were compelled to destroy the colonnades leading to the Antonine tower, thus cutting off" all connection with that fortress. They spared no craft to tire out the Romans, even setting fire to some of the pillars attached to the Temple, and then pre- tending to take flight. This stratagem succeeded in making the Romans climb over the walls, beyond which the Judaeans lay In ambush to receive them, putting them to the sword or casting them into the flames. But the fire could not be extinguished, and the beautiful colonnade of the western side was entirely destroyed. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the city were suf- fering cruelly from famine, which was sapping their 3o6 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XI. life, obliterating' all distinctions between rich and poor, and giving free scope to the lowest passions. Money had lost its value, for it could not purchase bread. Men fought desperately in the streets over the most loathsome and disgusting food, a handful of straw, a piece of leather, or offal thrown to the dogs. The wealthy Martha, wife of the High Priest Joshua ben Gamala, whose wont it had been to step on carpets from her house to the Temple, was found searching the town like the very poorest for a mor- sel of food, of even the most revolting description. As if not one line of the old prophecy concerning the doom of Judaea was to remain unfulfilled, a terrible scene was enacted, which struck even the enemy with horror. A woman by the name of Miriam, who had fled from Peraea to the capital, actually killed and devoured her own child. The rapidly increasing number of unburied corpses made the sultry summer air pestilential, and the populace fell a prey to sickness, famine, and the sword. But the army of the besieged fought on with unbroken courage, they rushed to the battlefield, although fainting with hunger and surrounded by grim pictures of death, as bravely as had been their wont in the early days of the siege. The Romans were amazed at the unflinch- ing heroism of the Zealots, at their devotion to the Sanctuary and to the cause of their people. In fact, they grew to look upon them as invincible, and stimulated by this belief, some few of their number were actually known to desert their colors and their faith and to accept Judaism, persuaded, in their turn, that the holy city could never fall into the hands of the enemy. Proud as the Judseans well might be of these voluntary proselytes, at this the supreme moment of their history, they volunteered to guard them as best they could from the horrors of starvation. Meanwhile, the Romans had begun to batter the outer walls of the courts of the Temple. For six CH. XI. DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE. 307 days they had been working' in vain, and had then tried to fix their scaling ladders and storm the walls. But as they were repulsed with great loss of life, Titus relinquished his hope of sparing the sacred edifice, and ordered his men to set fire to the gates. For a whole night and the next day the fire raged fiercely ; then Titus commanded that it should be extinguished, and that a road should be leveled for the advance of his legions. A council of war was hastily summoned to decide upon the fate of the Sanctuary. This council consisted of six of the chief generals of the army, three of whom advised the destruction of the Temple, which, if spared, would inevitably remain as a focus for rebellion. Titus was opposed to this decision, partly on ac- count of the Princess Berenice's feelings, and three of the council agreeing with their leader, it was decided to take the Temple, but not to destroy it. On the 9th Ab, the Judseans made another des- perate sally, but were driven back by an overpow- ering force of the besiegers. But the hour of the city's doom was about to strike, and in striking, leave an echo that would ring through the centuries to come. The besieged attempted one more furious onslaught upon their enemies. They were again defeated, and again driven back to their sheltering walls. But this time they were closely followed by the Romans, one of whom, seizing a burning fire- brand, mounted upon a comrade's shoulders, and flung his terrible missile through the so-called golden window of the Temple. The fire blazed up ; it caught the wooden beams of the sanctuary, and rose in flames heavenwards. At this sight the bravest of the Judaeans recoiled terror-stricken. Titus hurried to the spot with his troops, and shouted to the soldiers to extinguish the flames. But no one heeded him. The maddened soldiery plunged into the courts of the Temple, murdering all who came within their reach, and hurling their 2,oS HISTORY OK THE JEWS. CH. XI. firebrands into the blazing building. Titus, unable to control his legions, and urged by curiosity, pene- trated into the Holy of Holies. Meanwhile, the Judaeans, desperate in their death agonies, closed wildly with their assailants. The shouts of victory, the shrieks of despair, the fierce hissing of the flames, making the very earth tremble and the air vibrate, rose in one hideous din, which echoed from the tottering walls of the Sanctuary to the mountain-heights of Judaea. There were con- gregated clusters of trembling people from all the country round, who beheld in the ascending flames the sign that the glory of their nation had departed forever. Many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, unwilling to outlive their beloved Temple, cast themselves headlong into the burning mass. But thousands of men, women, and children, in spite of the fierce onslaught of the legions and the rapidly increasing flames, clung fondly to the inner court. For had they not been promised by the persuasive lips of false prophets, that God would save them by a miracle at the very moment of destruction ? They fell but an easier prey to the Romans, who slew some six thousand on the spot. The Temple was burnt to the ground, and only a few smouldering ruins were left, rising like gigantic ghosts from the ashes. A few of the priests had escaped to the tops of the walls, wdiere they remained without food for some days, until they w^ere compelled to surren- der. Titus ordered their instant execution, saying, " Priests must fall with their Temple." The con- quering legions raised their standards in the midst of the ruins, sacrificed to their gods in the Holy Place, and saluted Titus as emperor. By a strange coincidence the second Temple had fallen upon the anniversary of the destruction of the first Temple (loth Ab, 70). Titus, who could no longer feel bound to respect the feelings of the Princess Ber- enice, gave orders that the Acra and the Ophla, CH. XI. LAST RESISTANCE. 3O9 different parts of the city, should be instantly set on fire. But the struggle was not yet over. The leaders of the rebellion had retreated to the upper city with some of their followers. There they conferred with Titus. John and Simon, having sworn that they would never lay down their arms, offered to sur- render upon the condition that they would be per- mitted to pass armed through the Roman camp. But Titus sternly bade them throw themselves upon his mercy ; and so the fierce strife blazed out anew. On the 20th of Ab, the Romans began to raise their embankments, and after eighteen days of labor the siege of the upper city commenced. Even then the Zealots would not think of surrender. Discovering that the Idumaeans were secretly making terms with Titus, they threw some of the ring- leaders into prison, and executed others. But the Judaean warriors were exhausted by their super- human resistance and by the long famine, and the Romans were at last able to scale the walls and to seize the fortresses, a prelude to their spreading through the city, plundering and murdering the last of the wretched inhabitants. On the 8th of Elul they set fire to all that remained of Jerusalem, the upper city, known by the name of Zion. The walls were entirely leveled, Titus leaving only the three fortresses of Hippicus, Mariamne, and Pha- sael to stand as lasting witnesses of his victory. Under the ruins of Jerusalem and her Temple lay buried the last remnant of Judaea's independence. More than a million of lives had been lost during the siege. Counting those who had fallen at Gali- lee, Peraea, and the provinces, it may be assumed that the Judaeans who inhabited their native land were almost all destroyed. Once more did Zion sit weeping amongst the ruins, weeping over her sons fallen in battle, over her daughters sold into slavery or abandoned to 3IO HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XI. the savage soldiery of Rome ; but she was more desolate now than in the days of her first captivity, for hushed was the voice of the prophet, who once foretold the end of her widowhood and her mourning. CHAPTER XII. THE AFTER-THROES OF THE WAR. SufiEerings of the Prisoners — The Arena— Cruelty of Titus— Enmity of the Antiochians — Triumph of the Emperor on the occasion of the Conquest of Judsa — End of Simon Bar-Giora and John of Gischala — Coins to Commemorate the Roman Triumph — Fall of the Last Fortresses : Herodium, Masada, and Machasrus — Resistance of the Zealots in Alexandria and Cyrene — End of the Temple of Onias — The Last of the Zealots — Death of Berenice and Agrippa — Flavius Josephus and his Writings. 70-73 C. E. It would, indeed, be difficult to describe the suf- ferings of those who were taken captive in the war, estimated at the number of nine hundred thousand. The surviving inhabitants of Jerusalem were driven into the site of the Temple, and placed under the guardianship of a certain Fronto and a freed slave. All those who were recognized as insurgents were crucified, the princes of Adiabene alone being spared and sent as hostages to Rome, to secure the loyalty of the king of Adiabene. Seventeen thou- sand prisoners died of hunger, many of them being neglected by Fronto, whilst others indignantly re- fused the food which their conquerors offered them. From amongst the youths above seventeen years of age, the tallest and handsomest were selected for the Roman triumphs, whilst others were sent to labor in the mines for the rest of their lives, or were relegated to the Roman provinces, to take their part in the fights of the arena. Youths under the age of sixteen and most of the female cap- tives were sold into slavery at an incredibly low price, for the market was glutted. How many scenes of horror must have been witnessed and enacted by those unfortunate ones ! They had, 31X 312 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XII. it is true, one ray of comfort left. Possibly they might be carried to some Roman town where a Judaean community existed ; their own people would assuredly give any sum to purchase their freedom, and would then treat them with brotherly sympathy. Vespasian now declared that all Judaea was his property by conquest, and bade the Roman officials divide the country into lots, offering them to the highest bidder. And why should he not do so? Had he not fertilized the land with blood ? Be- sides which, the sale would realize great profits, and Vespasian cared even more for gold than for honor. And what was the work of the merciful Titus after ordering the execution of thousands, and consign- ing thousands to slavery? In his march through Syria he was followed by the most vigorous of his captives in chains. When he held his court in Caesarea, and entertained his friends in true Roman style, wild beasts were brought into the arena, and Judaean captives fought with them until they were torn to death ; or they were forced to fight one against another, dying by each other's hands. Thus at Caesarea, two thousand five hundred brave Judaean youths perished in this manner to celebrate the birthday of Domitian, the brother of the conqueror. And at Caesarea Philippi, on Mount Hermon, the residence of King Agrippa, this terrible spectacle was renewed before the eyes of that monarch and of the Princess Berenice. Vespasian's birthday was honored in the same way at Berytus, the sand of the arena being literally soaked with Judaean blood. In fact, the gentle- ness and humanity of Titus were strangely dis- played in all cities of Syria by a repetition of these barbarities. The Judaean communities in Syria, Asia Minor, Alexandria, and Rome, very nearly shared the fate of their brethren in Judaea. For the war had aroused the hatred of the entire CH XII. DEATH OF BAR-GIORA. 313 heathen world against the unfortunate children of Israel — a hatred which was fanatical in its intensity, its object being" the entire destruction of the whole race. Titus' inmost feelings must have coincided with those of his people. But strange to say, his love for Berenice, so deeply implanted in his heart, made him, upon one occasion, extend his mercy to her race. When he approached the city of Antioch, the whole populace turned out to meet him and demanded nothing less than the expulsion of the Judaean colony. But Titus replied that " The Judaeans having no country left to them, it would be inhuman to expel them from Antioch — they had no retreat." He even refused sternly to cancel their existing privileges. The Alexandrian Ju- daeans also were left undisturbed in their adopted city. Titus determined to celebrate his triumph over Judaea in the capital of the empire. For this pur- pose seven hundred of the flower of the Judaean captives and the two leaders of the Zealots, John of Gischala, who had surrendered to the enemy when fainting with hunger, and Simon Bar-GIora, were sent to Rome. At the close of the siege of Jeru- salem the dauntless Simon had leaped, with some of his followers, into one of the vaults beneath the city, and. provided with workmen's tools, had attempted to hew his way out ; but coming upon a great rock he was prevented from accomplishing his purpose, and his slender stock of provisions failing him, he determined to die as became a hero. In a white robe, covered with a purple mantle, he suddenly appeared before the Roman sentinels who were reposing amongst the ruins of the Temple. They gazed at him with terror. He merely addressed them with the following words : " Take me to your general." When Rufus appeared at the sentinels* call, the leader of the Zealots presented himself before his astonished gaze, saying : " I am Simon 314 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XII. Bar-Giora." He was instantly thrown into chains, and calmly awaited the fate that he knew was in store for him. Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian, celebrated their triumph over Judaa, in the im- perial city of Rome. In front of the emperor were borne the vessels of the Temple, the seven- branched candlestick, the golden table, and a roll of the Law. The Romans were further gladdened by the pageant of a long train of Judaean captives heavily chained, and by the wonderful represen- tations of all the horrors and misery of the war — a kind of theatrical entertainment, devised with much ingenuity for the occasion. Simon Bar- Giora (the terrible foe of the Roman legions), with a halter round his neck, was dragged through the streets of Rome, and finally hurled as a human sacrifice to the gods, from the Tarpeian rock. John of Gischala met with his fate in a dungeon. Tiberius Alexander, the conqueror of his own race, shared in the triumph, and a statue was erected in his honor in the Forum, Josephus was but a spectator of the scene. This magnificent triumph, the like of which had not been witnessed for many years in Rome, was a proof of the exultant joy, which passed like a wave over the heathen world, at the fall of Judaea, for the Roman legions had but rarely met with so obstinate a foe. To com- memorate this great victory, coins were struck, upon which Judsea was variously represented, as a sorrowing woman under a palm tree, either standing with fettered hands, or seated in a des- pairing attitude upon the ground. The coins bore these inscriptions, "the Conquered" or "the Cap- tive Judaea" ("Judaea devicta," "Judaea capta"). Later on, a beautiful arch was erected to Titus, which is still standing, and upon which the carved reliefs of the candlestick and vessels of the Temple are plainly visible. The Roman Judaeans, not only CH. XII. FALL OF THE REMAINING FORTRESSES. 315 at that time, but in years to come, would take a longer or more circuitous route, to avoid seeing this trophy. The rich spoils of the Sanctuary were deposited in the Temple of Peace, and the roll of the Law in the imperial palace ; but at a later time, when Rome was expiating her heavy sins, these relics of the glory of Jerusalem were carried to other countries. Judsea was not yet entirely subjugated, for three strong fortresses were still in arms : Hero- dium, Machaerus, and Masada. The governor, Bassus, sent by Vespasian to Judaea, was com- manded to take them. Herodium surrendered immediately, but Machaerus offered a stubborn resistance. This fortress, built by Alexander Jannaeus, was well defended from the enemy by its natural position. Steep precipices and yawning ravines made it impregnable. But it fell — and in this way : The young commander, Eleazer, a valiant hero, was captured by the Romans, whilst fear- lessly standing without the gates, proudly reliant upon the terror of his arms. Bassus ordered him to be scourged within view of the besieged, and then made semblance of having him crucified. A wail of despair went up from the fortress ; the besieged, determined to save their beloved com- rade, offered to give up their citadel if his life were spared. Bassus agreed to this proposal, and the garrison was saved ; but of the inhabitants of the lower town, the men and youths were inhumanly butchered, to the number of 1 700, and the women and children sold into slavery. Three thousand Zealots, under Judas ben Jair, who had escaped by one of the subterranean pas- sages from Jerusalem, were hiding in a wood on the outskirts of the Jordan. There they were, however, discovered and surrounded by the Romans, who mercilessly destroyed them. The death of Bassus, taking place at this time, caused the difficult task 3l6 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIl. of the conquest of Masada to devolve upon his successor Silva. This hill-fortress was, if possible, still more inaccessible than that of Macha^rus. The garrison consisted of looo Zealots, with their wives and children, commanded by Eleazer ben Jair, a descendant of Judas the founder of the Zealots. They were amply provided with pro- visions, water and weapons, and were, moreover, men of heroic resolve. But a Roman battering- ram destroyed one of the protecting walls, and a second wall of wooden beams, built by the be- sieged, was set on fire by the assailants. The situation was a hopeless one. Eleazer realized this, and determined upon persuading the garrison to die by their own hands rather than to fall into the power of the Romans. The heroes agreed to this proposal, even with enthusiasm, and on the first day of the great Feast of Passover, after slaying their wives and children, they all perished on their own swords. When the Romans entered the citadel, prepared for the last desperate struggle with their victims, they stood amazed at the ominous silence, and their shouts brought forth only two trembling women and five children, who came creeping out from a cavern. And it was thus that the last Zealots fell on Judaean ground. The Judaeans who had tried to shake off the Roman yoke had, indeed, been severely punished. Not only the inhabitants of Judsea, but also the Judaean community in Rome were made answerable ifor the rebellion. The two drachmae which they had annually given to their Sanctuary were now demanded for the Capitoline Jupiter. Vespasian's greed soon caused this tax to be swept into his private treasury ; and this first tax. inaugurated and imposed by the emperor ujDon the Judaeans, was called the Judaean fiscal tax (Fiscus Judaicus). On the other hand, those Judaeans who had been friendly to Rome, and had given Vespasian assistance CH, XII. FATE OF THE ZEALOTS. 317 during the war, were richly recompensed. Berenice was received with the highest honors at the Im- perial court. Titus' passion for this beautiful woman was so great that once, in a fit of jealousy, he ordered the strangulation of a Roman Consul, Cacina, his own table-companion. To flatter his vanity the Council of the Areopagus, the Six Hundred and the people of Athens erected a statue to Berenice, dedicated to " the great Queen, daughter of the great King, Julius Agrippa." He was on the eve of making her his wife, when an indignant outburst from the people of Rome forced him to let her depart. Her brother Agrippa shared her fall. More fortunate was Josephus, whom Vespasian and Titus could not sufficiently reward for his services. He accompanied the emperors on their triumphal processions, looked on the humiliation of his nation with revolting coldness, and showed undisguised delight in the death of her heroes. Vespasian not only granted him extensive landed possessions, but also placed his private palace at his disposal, and raised him to the citizenship of Rome. So high did he stand in the favor of the imperial house, that he was anxious to adopt their name, and is known to posterity as " Flavius Jose- phus." On the other hand, he was hated by the Judaean patriots, who exerted themselves to disturb him in the tranquil enjoyment of his possessions. But the war against the Zealots did not terminate with the fall of the last fortress. They transplanted their hatred of Rome whithersoever their flying feet carried them — to the provinces of the Euphrates, to Arabia, Egypt, and Cyrene. The Zealots who had taken refuge in Alexandria persuaded their co- religionists of that city to revolt against their rulers. Many of the Alexandrian Judaeans, still smarting from the severe persecutions which they had suffered some years previously from the Romans, were ready 3l8 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XII. for revolt ; but this mad scheme was opposed by the wealthy members of the community and the Council, They turned indignantly upon the Zealots, de- livering six hundred into the hands of the governor, Lupus, who executed them upon the spot. Others fled to Thebes, where they were pursued, seized, and put to the torture to make them acknowledge the emperor's authority. But unflinchingly they bore the most horrible agonies, men and boys vying with each other in steadfast adherence to their Zealot principles, and dying at last under torture. Vespasian, fearing that Egypt might become a new center of revolt, ordered the Temple of Onias to be closed, thus taking from the people their religious focus. The annual gifts, dedicated to the service of the Sanctuary, found their way, as a matter of course, into the imperial treasury. Some of the Zealots who had fled to the towns of Cyrenaica, now attempted to endanger their peace. Jonathan, one of their number, collected a mul- titude of the lower classes about him, and leading them into the Lybian Desert, announced some miraculous interposition. But here, again, the chief Judseans denounced their fanatical brethren to Ca- tullus, the Roman governor, who seized them, and had many of them executed. Jonathan, however, evaded their pursuit for some time, and at last, when captured, revenged himself by accusing many of the wealthy Judaeans of being his accomplices. He was thrown into chains and sent to Rome. In the imperial city he ventured to declare that Josephus and some of the Roman Judceans were disloyal to the emperor. Titus indignantly refused to believe this, and appeared to defend his favorite, whose innocence, together with that of his co-relig- ionists, he clearly established. Jonathan was then scourged and burnt alive. Thus ended the Zealot movement which had spread with evil results among a large portion of CH. Xn. JOSEPHUS S HISTORICAL WRITINGS. 319 the Judsean people In the Roman Empire. But the Zealots who had escaped to North Arabia to the vicinity of Medina were the most fortunate ; for they succeeded in founding a community of their own, which lasted until the seventh century. Upon another occasion, they played no unimportant part. So great was the sensation produced throughout the Roman Empire by this long and desperate resistance of the Judaeans, that several writers felt themselves called upon to give a detailed descrip- tion of the war. The heathen authors were, of course, partial in their treatment of the subject ; and, with due deference to the feelings of the Roman generals, underrated the heroism of the Judaeans. But Josephus, who, in spite of his Roman proclivities, had some spark of patriotism left, could not brook hearing his people stigmatized as cowards ; so, collecting all the facts of the long struggle that had come under his own notice, he wrote an account of the war in seven books, at first in the Syro-Chaldaic tongue, and afterwards in Greek (75-79). But this version could not turn out to be any more impartial, seeing how deeply his own interests had been involved. He laid his work before Titus, who gave him permission to offer it to the public, a clear proof that the Emperor was satisfied with its tendency. Justus of Tiberias had preceded Josephus with a history of the Judsean war, in which he accused that historian of hostility to Rome, of having been party to the revolt in Galilee, and of having invented his descent from the Hasmonsean house. When the war of the sword was at an end, the war of the pen was carried on by the two writers. But Justus can hardly be commended for exem- plary conduct ; for he had once led a revolt in Galilee, and had then headed a sally against the neighboring Greek population ; after which he pre- sented himself boldly before Agrippa. Berenice 320 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XII. having obtained his pardon, he was taken into the king's service and most generously treated. But for some later offense he was imprisoned, and ban- ished, then recalled, pardoned, and made the king's secretary. He was at length banished again for some unknown reason. Justus, having received a thoroughly Greek education, was able to write the history of the war in a more correct and elegant style than it was possible for Josephus to do. Jeremiah, uttering his lamentations amidst the ruins of Jerusalem, fitly ends the first period of Jewish history ; whilst Flavius Josephus, writing the story of his people in the quiet of Caesar's palace, concludes the second period. THE TALMUDIC EPOCH. CHAPTER XIII. THE SYNHEDRION AT JABNE. Foundation of the School at Jabne — Jochanan ben Zakkai — The Last of the Herodians — Judseaand Rome — TheTanaites — GamaUel II. appointed Patriarch — The Power of Excommunication — Deposi- tion and Restoration of the Patriarch — Steps towards Collecting the Mishna — Eliezer ben Hyrcanus — Joshua ben Chananya — Akiba and his System— Ishmael — Condition of the Synhedrion. 70-117 c. E. The disastrous result of the war which had been waged against the Romans during a period of four years, the destruction of the State, the burning of the Temple, the condemnation of the prisoners to labor in the lead-works of Egypt, to be sold in the slave-markets, or to become victims in the fights with wild beasts in the arena — all these calamities came with such crushing force on the remaining Jews that they felt utterly at a loss as to what they should do. Judaea was depopulated ; all who had taken up arms, whether in northern or southern, whether in cis- or trans-Jordanic Judaea, were either dead or enslaved and banished. The infuriated conquerors had spared neither the women nor the children. The third banishment — the Roman Exile (Galut Edom), under Vespasian and Titus — had commenced amid greater terror and cruelty than the Babylonian Exile under Nebuchadnezzar. Only a few were spared — those who openly or secretly sided with the Romans, partisans of Rome, who,^ from the very commencement, had been devoid of patriotic feelings ; the friends of peace, who thought that Judaism had a different task from that of combating the Romans by force 331 32 2 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIII. of arms, thoughtful and careful men, who looked upon a contest with Rome as national suicide ; and lastly those who, through party strife, had been forced to lay down their arms and to make separate terms with the Romans. This small remnant in the land of Judaea and the Jews of Syria, who had always hoped that Titus would respect the Temple (the center of worship and religion), were moved deeply, and thrown into despair at the destruction of the sanctuary pro- tected by God. Their despair led to various results. Some were driven to lead an ascetic life, to deny themselves meat and wine ; others were led thereby to join Christianity, seeking thus to fill the void in their hearts which was caused by the cessation of burnt-offerings. Judaism Vvas threatened by the greatest danger ; deprived, as it was, of its support and rallying-point, it appeared in imminent danger of stagnation or of falling to pieces. The communities in Syria, Babylon, and Persia, in Asia Minor, Rome, and in Europe gen- erally, had until now turned their eyes to Jerusalem and the Temple, whence they drew their instructions and laws. The only independent congregation, that of Alexandria, had become helpless through the destruction of the Temple of Onias. What was to be the future of the Jewish nation, of Judaism ? The Synhedrion, which had given laws to the entire community, and had regulated its religious life, had disappeared with the fall of Jerusalem. Who would step into the breach, and render a continued exist- ence a possibility? There now appeared a man who seemed made to save the essential doctrines of Judaism, to restore some amount of strength to the nation, so that it might continue to live, and the threatened decay be averted. This man was Jochanan, the son of Zakkai. He labored, like the prophets during the first exile in Babylon, but by other means, to maintain the life CH. XIII. JOCHANAN BEN ZAKKAI. 323 of the Jewish nation ; he reanimated its frozen Hmbs, and infusing fresh energy into its actions, consoH- dated its dispersed members into one whole. Joch- anan, if not a disciple of Hillel, was yet an heir to his mind. For forty years he is said to have been a tradesman. In other cases, too, we shall see that the great leaders in Jewish history did not follow the study of the Law as a means of sub- sistence or of gain. During the existence of the State, Jochanan sat in the Synhedrion, or taught within the shadow of the Temple : his school at Jerusalem is said to have been an important one. He was the first man who successfully combated the Sadducees, and who knew how to refute their arguments. During the stormy days of the revo- lution, he, owing to his peaceful character, joined the party of peace, and on several occasions he urged the nation and the Zealots to surrender the town of Jerusalem, and to submit to the Romans. " Why do you desire to destroy the town, and to give up the Temple to the flames ? " he would say to the leaders of the revolution. Notwithstanding the respect in which he was held, his well-meant admonitions were ignored by the Zealots. The spies whom the Roman general placed in the besieged city of Jerusalem, and who reported to him what took place, did not fail to announce that Jochanan belonged to the friends of Rome, and that he counseled the chiefs to make peace. The news from the town was conveyed on small pieces of paper, which were shot on arrows into the Roman camp. Induced either by fear of the Zealots, or by the desire of obtaining a place of safety for the Law, Jochanan formed the idea of taking refuge in the camp of Titus. To depart from the town was, however, very difficult, as the Zealots kept up a constant watch ; Jochanan, there- fore, aided by a leader of the Zealots, named Ben-Batiach, determined to have himself conveyed 324 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIII. out of the town as a corpse. Having been placed in a coffin he was carried out of the city gates, at the hour of sunset, by his pupils Eleazer and Joshua. Titus received the fugitive in a friendly manner, and gave him permission to make some request of him. Jochanan modestly requested that he might be permitted to establish a school at Jamnia (Jabne), where he could give lectures to his pupils. The district in which this town lay belonged to the private domains of the imperial house, to which it had been bequeathed by the last will of Salome, the sister of Herod. Titus had nothing to urge against the harmless wish of Jochanan, for he could not foresee that by this unimportant concession he was enabling Judaism, feeble as it then appeared, to outlive Rome, which was in all its vigor, by thousands of years. Jochanan settled with his disciples in Jamnia, a city not far from the Mediterranean Sea, and situated between the port Joppa, and the former city of the Philistines, Ashdod. Jochanan was unable to settle down to his occupation for some space of time, during which the bitter strife was raging before the walls of Jerusalem, and within its streets and its Temple. When the news arrived that the city had fallen, and that the Temple was in flames, Jochanan and his disciples mourned and wailed as if they had lost a dear relative through death. Jochanan, however, unlike his followers, did not despair, for he recognized the truth that Judaism was not indissolubly bound up with its Temple and its altar. He rather consoled his mourning dis- ciples for the loss of the place of expiation with the fitting remark that charity and love of mankind would take the place of burnt-offerings, as it is said in the Bible — " for I take pleasure in mercy and not in burnt-offerings." This liberal view of the value of burnt-offerinors made it clear, however, that it was absolutely necessary for a fresh center to be CH. XIII. SETTLEMENT AT JABNE. 325 established in lieu of the Temple. Jochanan there- fore formed a sort of Synhedrion in Jabne, of which he was at once recognized as the President. The newly created Synhedrion was certainly not com- posed of seventy members, and no doubt had a totally different sphere of action from the one in Jerusalem, which during the revolution had exer- cised control over the most important political events. The Synhedrion of Jamnia in the first place gave to its founder plenary power in all reli- gious matters such as the Council had possessed in Jerusalem, and with this were connected the ju- dicial functions of a supreme court. It was only by unbounded authority that Jochanan could compass the formation and consolidation of a Synhedrion, under the unfavorable conditions of the time. Jochanan had to oppose the general opinion that the Synhedrion as a body should have control only in the hewn-stone hall of the Temple, and that outside this spot it lost its judicial character and ceased to be the representative of the nation. When, therefore, Jochanan dissociated the functions of the Synhedrion from the site of the Temple, and removed it to Jabne, he had actually released. Ju- daism from the observance of the rite of burnt- offerings, and rendered it independent. Without any opposition whatsoever, Jabne by this means took the place of Jerusalem, and became the re- ligious national center for the dispersed community. The important functions of the Synhedrion, by which it exercised a judicial and uniting power over the distant congregations, such as the fixing of the time for the new moon and the festivals, proceeded from Jabne. It enjoyed some of the religious privileges of the Holy City. The Synhedrion now bore the name of the Beth-Din (Court of Justice) — the President was called Rosh-beth-din, and was honored by the title of Rabban (general teacher). Jochanan gave over to the Court of Justice the 326 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XHI. supervision of arrangements for the calendar, which had formerly been one of the offices of the President. By this means the watchers who were looking out for the reappearance of the new moon needed no longer follow the President about in order to give him the information, but had only to attend the sittings of the assembly. This change was an important step, as it rendered the Synhedrion inde- pendent of the person of its President. Jochanan made altogether nine changes, most of which affected such arrangements as had been rendered valueless through the destruction of the Temple. He, however, retained various religious customs as a remembrance of the Temple. He promoted the continuance and preservation of Judaism through the renewal of the study of the Law, and thus rendered firmer the weakened foundations of Jewish communal life. The school at Jabne he influenced through his disciples, whom he imbued with his spirit and his learning. Five of his distinguished pupils are known to us by name, but only three of them won lasting renown — Eliezer, and Joshua (who had carried Jochanan in a coffin out of Jerusalem), and also Eleazer ben Arach. The latter was the most eminent and im- portant amongst them, and of him it was said, "If weighed in the scale, he would outweigh all his fellow-scholars." Jochanan loved to incite them to independent thought by deep-reaching questions. Thus he gave them as a theme for thought, " What should man endeavor most eagerly to obtain?" The one answered " a genial manner," the other " a noble friend," a third " a noble neighbor," the fourth "the gift of knowing in advance the result of his actions." Eleazer answered that " man's best possession is a noble heart." This remark won the approval of his master ; it was an answer after his own mind, for in it all else was included. What was the character of the teachings which Jochanan imparted to his pupils in the school? CH. XIII. THE ORAL LAW. 327 Hillel, the most respected of the teachers of the Law, the highly-honored ideal in times to come, had given to Judaism a special garb and form, or rather had given it the character of the Law, which had always been peculiar to it. He was the first to develop and confirm a special theory, a sort of Jewish theology or nomology (science of religious laws). He was the founder of Talmudic Judaism. From the midst of contending parties, which were tearing one another to pieces, Hillel had drawn the Law into the quiet precincts of the school-house, and had endeavored to bring into harmony those precepts which were apparently opposed to the Law. Those which had been considered as only customary and traditional were regarded as human laws, and were looked upon by the Sadducees as innovations. Hillel had shown these to be of Bibli- cal origin. His seven explanatory rules, or laws of interpretation, had on the one hand confirmed the laws which had been introduced by the Sopheric and Pharisaic teachers, and on the other hand had given them new scope to develop. The written Law (that of the Pentateuch) and the oral Law (the Sopheric) from his time ceased to be two widely sundered branches, but were brought into close relations with each other, al- though the new rendering certainly did violence to the words of Scripture. But as the text was ex- plained, not on a philological basis, but in order to elucidate the laws, it was not possible to keep simply to the written words ; it was necessary to in- terpret them so as to render them suited to the new conditions of life. Under the term Oral Law was included everything which had been handed down from the Fathers, and it formed to a certain extent a hereditary law. The various restrictions which the Sopheric teachers had placed around the Law, the legal decisions which had been introduced by the Synhedrion, the customs which had been observed 328 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH XHl. from generation to generation, the extensions de- duced from meager verses of the Pentateuch, all these elements were not written down, but were committed to memory. They were put into the form of short sentences, called " Halacha." They were not arranged or classified according to subjects, but were strung together without connection, or handed down separately, sometimes joined to the name of the authority from whom they were derived. A marvelous memory was needed to retain these Halachas or oral teachings. Jochanan ben Zakkai was the man who best knew these laws. He handed them down to his pupils, and pointed out to them their connection with the written law ; he showed them how to draw deductions therefrom, the laws handed down being the material, and their mode of treatment the form. These deductions were obtained by two methods, the one showing how the ordinances of the Law were to be obtained from the words of Scripture (Midrash), and the other served to apply the oral Law to new questions as they arose (Talmud). Thus a fruitful field for the extension of the Law and for ingenious combina- tions was opened, which was later on freely culti- vated. Jochanan ben Zakkai, however, thought much more of the material of the Law than of its form. He taught not only those doctrines of Judaism which appertained to the Law, but also those por- tions of the Holy Scriptures which had no direct bearing on the Law. He gave lectures on the writings of the prophets and historians in the form of discourses, which had for some time past been in use both in and out of the synagogue. These lectures were either edifying, comforting, or bitter, sharp, and ironical, and applied the words of the prophets about Edom and Esau, to hated Rome and its tyranny. This kind of exposition of Scripture had a name, "Agada" or " Hagadah." Its chief CH. XIII. TEACHINGS OF JOCHANAN. 329 subjects consisted In explaining historical events, prophetic utterances, and In bringing to mind the past, and treating of the future of Judaism. The Agada investigated the meaning of the Law, ex- amined Into the general moral truths of Judaism, deftly united the present with the past, and shad- owed the present conditions of life in past ex- periences. The Halacha forms the chief trunk of the Law, the Midrash the suckling roots, which drew their nourishment from the words of Scripture. The Talmud formed the wide-spreading branches, and the Agada was the blossom which scented and colored the simple fabric of the laws. In his Agadic dissertations Jochanan endeavored to illuminate the ordinances of the Law by the light of the understanding, and to combine them into general truths, but In a clear and simple manner, utterly dissimilar from the exaggerated method of the Alexandrian-Jewish teachers, who endeavored to extract the dazzling light of the Grecian mode of thought from Holy Writ. Amongst other things, Jochanan explained very quaintly why the use of Iron Is forbidden In erecting an altar. Iron is the symbol of war and dissension ; the altar, on the contrary, is the symbol of peace and atonement ; therefore Iron must be kept away from the altar. He deduced therefrom the high value of peace, the advantages of peace between man and wife, between one city and another, and between one nation and another. These were the principles which had Induced him to side with the Romans against the revolutionaries. In this way he ex- plained various laws, and rendered them compre- hensible, when they seemed obscure or In any way extraordinary. Jochanan was wont to hold converse also with Pagans who had knowledge of the Jewish Law, either from the Greek translation or from their intercourse with the Jews, refuting the objections which they raised, and dispelling or making clear 330 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH XIII. by suitable comparisons the peculiarities which occur in the Moly Writings. Besides Jochanan, who was the most influential and the chief personage of his time, there was a group of teachers of the Law. They were all at an advanced age at the period of the destruction of the State, and were without doubt members of the Jamnian Synhedrion. Most of them, of whom nothing im- portant is recorded, are known only by name. Among these were Chanina, the deputy of various High Priests {Segan ha-Coha?iim), who has pre- served for us traditions from the time of the Temple. He belonged to the lovers of peace, and exhorted his contemporaries to pray for the well-being of the ruling power (that of the Romans), "for, if no fear thereof existed, then one man would swallow another alive." Zadok, another teacher, was a disciple of Shammai, and in anticipation of the fall of the Tem- ple he fasted for forty years, whereby he ruined his health. Nachum, the Mede, who had been pre- viously member of a college of the Law in Jeru- salem, Dossa ben Archinas, with his brother Jona- than, the latter a clear-headed and argumentative youth, and Abba Saul must also be mentioned. Lastly, there belonged to this circle Nachum of Gimso (Emmaus), and Nechunya ben Hakana. The first has been recorded by tradition as the hero of strange adventures, and even the name of his birth- place Gimso has been explained, so as to put into his mouth the words " This also is for good " (Gam- su-l'-toba). He is represented in the world of legend as a scholar to whom many disagreeable ex- periences happened, all of which proved of good to him. Nachum developed a special mode of teaching, which consisted in explaining the oral law from the written text, according to certain particles which the lawgiver had purposely used as indica- tions when drawing up the Law. These particles, according to his idea, not only served as syntactical CH. XIII. CHARACTER OF JOCHANAN. 33 1 signs in the sentences, but as signs for enlarging and diminishing the circle within which each law should work. Nachum's rules formed a new and fruitful addition to those laid down by Hillel ; they were carefully cultivated and developed, and re- ceived the name " the rules of extension or exclu- sion" (Ribbuj-u-m'ut). Nechunya ben Hakana was, however, an opponent of Nachum's system ; he ap- proved only the explanatory rules as propounded by Hillel. Jochanan ben Zakkai, the head not of the State but of the community, appears to have acted as a shield from a political point of view. His kindly and gentle disposition, in which he resembled Hillel, he displayed even to the heathens. It Is related of him that he always greeted them in a friendly man- ner. Such friendliness offers a striking contrast to the hatred felt by the Zealots towards the heathens, both before and after the revolution, which in- creased after the destruction of the Temple. The verse (Proverbs xiv. 34), "The kindness of the nations is sin," was taken literally by the people of that time, and was specially applied to the heathen world. " The heathens may do ever so much good, yet it Is accounted to them as sin, for they do it only to mock us." Jochanan alone explained this verse in a sense expressive of true humanity : "As the burnt-offering atones for Israel, so mercy and kindness atone for the heathen nations." This kindliness of Jochanan may have contributed to the result that, notwithstanding the fresh outbreaks amongst the Jews in Cyrene and Egypt, which the Emperors Vespasian and Titus had to put down, they did not persecute the Jews in any extra- ordinary degree. It is expressly stated in ancient records that the Roman authorities removed the contempt which formerly attached to the Jews, and that the murder of a Jew was punished by death. The personality of Jochanan may have served them 1^;^2 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIIL as a guarantee for the peaceful disposition of the mother-country. Hope alone gave to him and his circle of fellow- pupils and disciples fresh courage, the hope or rather the assurance that Israel should not be lost. The dreary present did not veil from him the promised and brighter future. The present was in truth sufficiently overcast. The pasture lands had been taken away from those who had survived the national disasters, and given to strangers. Thereby those who had formerly been rich had fallen into poverty. The very poorest had to pay the Jews' tax (Fiscus Judaicus). The land, which before the war had been so flourishing, was strewn with ruins. Every joy had departed from Israel ; even weddings were performed in a silent manner. Jochanan described the comfortless position of the times in an address to the people. He once saw a Jewish maiden of a rich house, picking up a scanty nourishment of barley-corn from amongst the horses' hoofs. At this he exclaimed, " Unhappy nation, you would not serve God, and therefore you must serve foreign nations ; you would not offer half a shekel for the Temple, and therefore you must pay thirty times as much to the State of your new enemies ; you refused to keep the roads and paths in order for the pil- grims, and, therefore, you must now support the watch-lodges in the vineyards, which the Romans have seized." Agrippa and Berenice, the remaining members of the house of Herod, who kept up close connec- tions with those in power, appear to have contri- buted greatly to the alleviation of the sorrows of the conquered Jews. Princess Berenice, whose beauty seemed to bid defiance to time, long held Titus captive by her charms, and it wanted but little for the Jewish princess to become a Roman empress. The prejudice of Roman pride disturbed the project of a marriage between Titus and CH. XIII. DEATH OF JOCHANAN. 333 Berenice, and compelled the Emperor's son to break the bonds which had bound him for years. Berenice had to leave the royal palace, and proba- bly returned to her brother in Palestine. But as Titus had not yet given up the hope of making her his wife, her voice still had weight with him, and it probably was often raised in favor of her co-reli- gionists, to whom she was attached. The last Jewish king, Agrippa, also stood in favor with Vespasian, for the great services which he had rendered to his house. It appears that the Em- peror had added Galilee to his territories ; Agrippa had a Jewish governor, whom he sent alternately to the two Galilaean capitals, Tiberias and Sepphoris. To this ruler it was no doubt due that the district of Galilee recovered itself more rapidly, and became sooner repeopled than Judaea, which was governed by a Roman ruler. The period during which Jochanan worked in his new sphere of action cannot be stated with cer- tainty. He united in himself the qualities of the prophet Jeremiah and the prince Zerubbabel, who had been in exile. Like Jeremiah he mourned over the destruction of Jerusalem, and like Zerubbabel he unrolled a new future. Both Jochanan ben Zakkai and Zerubbabel stood at the threshold of a new epoch, both laid the foundation-stone of a new edifice in Judaism, for the completion of which the subsequent generations have worked. Joch- anan died on his bed in the arms of his pupils. He had previously had a conversation with them, which gives an insight into his mind. His pupils were sur- prised to find their courageous master frightened and depressed in the hour of his death. He re- marked that he did not fear death, but the having to appear before the Eternal Ruler, whose justice was incorruptible. He blessed his pupils before his death with these words — "May the fear of God influence your actions as much as the fear of man." 334 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIII. Immediately after the death of their master, his chief disciples held council as to the place where they might continue the work of teaching the Law. Most of them thought of remaining in Jabne, where there lived a circle of men acquainted with the traditions of the past. Eleazar ben Arach, the favorite pupil of Jochanan, however, insisted on removing the school to Emmaus (Gimso), a healthy and pleasant town, three geographical miles distant from Jabne. Believing that he was absolutely need- ful to his fellow-students, and being persuaded by his wife that they would soon follow him, he sepa- rated from them, and remained in Emmaus. Soli- tary and cut off from the opportunity of exchanging ideas with others, he is said to have so utterly for- gotten what he once knew, that amusing anecdotes are related of his subsequent ignorance. To Arach was applied the saying, "Repair to the place of the Law, and do not fancy that thy comrades will follow thee, and that they can uphold the Law only through thee ; do not rely too much on thy penetration." Whilst Arach, from whom so much was hoped, was thus forgotten, his companions continued the work of their master, and became renowned in generations to come. Gamaliel, Joshua, and Eliezer came to the fore as important personages. It was first necessary to give a chief to the com- munity, which, though small, was yet respected by the Jews of all countries. Gamaliel was chosea; he was the descendant of Hillel, and his ancestors had presided over the Synhedrion throughout four generations. It must have been necessary to remove political difficulties to enable the son of the man who had been concerned in the uprising against the Romans, to attain so high a rank. Gamaliel took the title Nasi (Prince — among the Romans, Pa- triarch). He had his seat in Jabne, and was also sufficiently versed in traditions to preside in the school. Although the town of Jabne was of first CH. XIII. QUARRELS OF THE SCHOOLS. 335 importance, the members of the new college esta- blished some schools outside of the town of Jabne, but in its neighborhood. Eliezer taught at Lydda ; Joshua at Bekiin, on the plains between Jabne and Lydda ; other pupils of Jochanan also opened schools ; and each attracted a circle of disciples, and was called by the title Rabbi (Master). The Patriarch was called Rabban (General Master), to distinguish him from the other teachers. The Law therefore was not left unheeded after the death of the founder of the Jabne Synhedrion ; it received, if possible, even more attention ; but the unity which had hardly been established threatened to dis- appear altogether. The disputes between the ad- herents of the schools of Hillel and Shammai, over which blood had been shed before the destruction of the Temple, and which had only been quelled by the war of the revolution, broke out afresh, and the more severely, as the uniting influence proceeding from the Temple now no longer existed. The con- tentions between the schools, which extended to various practical matters, brought about wide diver- gence in the views with regard to the Law and life. One teacher held some things to be permissible which another forbade ; and in one place things were done which were not allowed in another. Thus Judaism seemed to have two bodies of laws, or, according to the words of the Talmud — "The one Law had become two." Important questions of life, sometimes involving serious consequences, such as those concerning marriage, were affected by these differences. The younger generation, relieved from the necessity for mutual forbearance occasioned by the late war, had no very strong desire to make peace, but contested the disputed questions with great acrimony. The endeavor to terminate these quarrels, which threatened the destruction of all unity, was the life-task of Gamaliel, but his policy brought him into open collision with his friends. 33<^ HISTORY OF THE JKWS. CH. XIII. Little is known of his private affairs, but this Httle shows him to have possessed a high moral character and a powerful mind. Gamaliel owned land, which he lent to be cultivated on condition that he received a part of the harvest. He also gave corn for sowing purposes, but when he was repaid he only accepted the lowest prices, in order to avoid even the ap- pearance of taking interest. He displayed great tenderness to his favorite slave Tabi, whom he would willingly have set free could he have done so, and had not the Law disapproved of manumission. On the death of the slave he mourned for him as for a relative. Gamaliel appears to have had some math- ematical knowledge. In fixing the new moon and the holidays dependent on it, he was guided more by astronomical calculations than by the evidence of witnesses that they had or had not seen the new moon. Such reckonings, exact even to a fraction, were handed down in the house of the Patriarch. Gamaliel often made journeys in order to visit the various congregations, to be an eye-witness of their condition, and to keep them all in order. His jour- neys took him over Judeea, into Galilee, and as far as Acco (Ptolemais). Although he was not of robust health, he did not spare himself the greatest exer- tions, when he could benefit his people. His rule as Patriarch occurred in a very troubled time, both within and without, and this circumstance caused him to insist on his dignity most strictly. His character was thereby misunderstood, and he was accused of forming selfish and ambitious plans. Gamaliel directed his chief energies to raise the patriarchal dignity that it should become the center of the Jewish community, so as to maintain by his authority the threatened unity of the Law, and the religious and moral condition of the people. In the contests between the disciples of the schools of Shammai and Hillel he decreed that votes should be taken with regard to each law in question, and tha: the decision CH. XIII. GAMALIEL IL 337 should be determined by the majority of votes in the college, in order to protect by authority the threatened unity of the Law against all attacks. The desire for unity seems to have been more generally felt, the more the opposition between the two schools in- creased, and the more the two sets of followers, who clung to the Halachas bequeathed to them by their teachers, sought to develop their doctrines. Contemporaries did not disguise from themselves the fact that the Law might easily be subject to confusion throuofh these differences. A fear was expressed that the time would soon come when men would refer in vain to the Holy Writings or to the Oral Law for a decision, and when one account would contradict the other. The Synhedrion of Jabne, therefore, once more subjected contested matters to discussion and decision. It began with the fundamental propositions of Hillel and Sham- mai, in order to fix by voting such rules as should hold good in all cases. But it was not easy to obtain unity ; for three and a half years the contest is said to have lasted in the vineyards of Jabne, both parties insisting on the exclusive correctness of their own traditions — the Shammaites being especially stubborn and immovable, and, like the founder of their school, not disposed to yield. Then a voice, heard by chance (Bath-Kol), which was usually considered as a communication from heaven in difficult cases, is said to have sounded through the school-house in Jabne — a voice which said, "The teachings of both schools are the words of the living God, but practically the laws of Hillel only are to carry weight." Joshua, a man of calm disposition, alone expressed himself against any decision arrived at by the Bath-Kol. "We do not require a miraculous voice," he said, "for the Law is not given for heavenly beings, but for men, who in questionable cases can decide by taking a majority, and a miracle cannot in such cases give the decision." 338 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XHI. Eliezer also was not satisfied with the conclusion arrived at, but this opposition had only slight results. Hillel's expositions, deductions, and explanatory rules at length attained the authority due to them. As the followers of Shammai held with the Zealots, the enemies of the Romans, and the Hillelites with the peace party, the revolution was in some measure ended by this act of the Synhedrion of Jabne. But it was not intended to exercise compulsion against the Shammaites, and so entirely to reorganize their religious life according to the decision arrived at ; on the contrary it permitted them to follow their own convictions. " Every man according to his choice may follow the school of Hillel or of Shammai, but the decisions of the school of Hillel shall be the only accepted interpretation of the Law." Rabbi Gamaliel watched most carefully over the union of the two parties, which was probably his work, and withstood any attempt to oppose the decisions of the Synhedrion ; he was supported by the venera- ble Zadok, to whom he gave the place of honor at his right hand at all meetings, and who, having beheld the Temple in its glory, was considered as an authority. There seems to have been another regulation in use besides the above, but the connection of the two is not very clear. The Patriarch of Jabne made a rule that only such persons should be admitted to the school-house whose uprightness had been proved ; and for this purpose he placed a porter at the doors of the school, in order to prevent the admission of those who were unworthy. It ap- pears that he desired to exclude such as pursued the study of the Law with wrong intentions ; some, perhaps, had sought admission to the school from vanity or other Ignoble motives. Two warnings, the one by Jochanan ben Zakkai, and the other by Zadok, against those who took part in the study of the Law from self-interest, appear to confirm this CH. XIII. EXCOMMUNICATION. 339 supposition. The former said, " If you have acquired much of the Law, do not be proud of it, for you are made for that purpose." The latter said, " Do not use the Law as a crown in order to shine with it, nor as a spade in order to dig with it." Such low ideas Gamaliel endeavored to keep out of the circle of the school. Both arrangements, the employment of the autho- rity of the Patriarch in maintaining the Halachic decisions, and the precautions for admitting mem- bers and disciples, met with opposition, which at first was only timidly expressed. The Patriarch endeavored to keep down contests by the use of excommunication, which he employed with great energy, and w^ith that entire disregard of conse- quences which arises from deeply rooted conviction. The excommunication (Nidui) had not at that time the gloomy severity of later ages, but was of a mild form ; forbidding the interdicted man to hold any close intercourse with others until he had penitently submitted to the required demands. During the interdict, which lasted at least thirty days, the sin- ner wore a black mourning-garb and kept several mourning observances ; if he died during this period without having submitted or repented, the Court of Justice had a stone laid on his coffin. Gamaliel had the courage to excommunicate several of the most important personages of his time, whereby he made many bitter enemies. He acted thus even towards his own brother-in-law, Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Deeply impressed by the unfortunate results which disunion must bring to Judaism, threatened as it already was by various half-Jewish, half-Christian sects, Gamaliel did not hesitate to proceed with severity against trifling offenses, in order to avoid the destruction of religious unity. There was once a discussion about an oven of peculiar struc- ture, which a decision of the majority had pro- nounced liable to become unclean, like earthen- 340 HISTORY OF Till-: J i:\VS. CH. XIII. ware vessels. Eliezer, following a special tradition, did not wish to yield to this decision, and acted in opposition to it ; at Gamaliel's instigation, Eliezer was excommunicated. Gamaliel thought that he had united the two schools, and had brought about peace, when his power was destroyed by a man from whom he had not expected any energetic opposition. Joshua, who was of a yielding disposition, and apparently the least dangerous of the opponents of the severe Patriarch, became his worst enemy. Joshua was just as discontented with some of Gamaliel's regu- lations as Eliezer had been, but he did not venture to show his disapproval on account of his poor and miserable condition, and when he happened to utter any contradictory opinion he quickly withdrew it again. Gamaliel had received the report of two un- trustworthy witnesses in order to fix the commence- ment of the month of Tishri, on which depended the dates of the chief festivals, including the Day of Atonement. Joshua showed that the Patriarch had committed an error in this act, and demanded that the collegfe should chano^e the date of the holi- day. Gamaliel remained firm, and sent an order to Joshua that on the day which, according to Joshua's calculation, was the Day of Atonement, the latter should appear before him in workaday clothes, with his staff, knapsack, and money-bag. This dictatorial proceeding seemed so harsh to Joshua, that he com- plained of it to his most important colleagues, and appeared determined to oppose it. Those, however, who saw the necessity for unity persuaded him to yield. The venerable Dossa ben Harchlnas con- vinced him that the arrangements of a religious chief must be uncontested even if they are erroneous, and that every man must follow them. Joshua allowed himself to be persuaded, and submitted to the Patriarch. Ills appearance filled Gamaliel with astonishment. Me greeted him heartily, and said CH.XIII. DEPOSITION OF GAMALIEL. 34I to him, ''Welcome, my teacher and pupil — my teacher in wisdom, my pupil in obedience, Happy is the age in which great men obey inferior ones." But this reconciliation was not of long duration. The severe proceedings of the Patriarch had raised a hostile party against him, which began secretly to act in opposition to him. He knew of this oppo- sition party, and referred to it in public addresses. It is related of him that his mode of opening the sittings of the Synhedrion varied. If none of his opponents were present he would ask the assembly to propound questions ; if, however, any of his enemies were present he would not give this invita- tion. The opposition party seem therefore to have put him in a dilemma at these meetings. Gamaliel may have had reason to consider Joshua as the chief of this party, and often made him feel the power of his own higher position by offensive demeanor and severe treatment. One day the mutual ill-feeling led to an outbreak, and caused a change in the Synhedrion. The Patriarch had once again offended Joshua by his severe manner, and accused him of secret opposition to one of the Halachas. As Joshua at first denied the fact, Gamaliel was so angered that he cried out, " Then stand, so that witnesses may give evidence against you." This was the form of an indictment. The school-house was full of people, amongst whom there arose a tumult at this contemptuous treatment of a member who was respected and loved by the people. The opposition party took courage, and gave utterance to their dissatisfaction. They called out to the Patriarch, "Who is there that has not constantly felt thy severity ? " The school was turned into a tribunal, and the college deposed Gamaliel on the spot from the dignity of Patriarch. With his fall ended the regulations made by him. The porter was removed from the door of the school, to which all could now gain unobstructed 342 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIII. admission. The members of the Synhedrion imme- diately sought for another Patriarch, so that this important office might not be unoccupied. They had too much tact to heap fresh contumely on the late Patriarch by choosing Joshua, his chief opponent, and Eliezer, who had a claim to the honor, lay under an interdict. Akiba seemed fitted for the post by his intellect and character. He had quickly risen from ignorance and poverty, had rapidly passed the intervening steps between the degrees of pupil and master, and had obtained admiration even from the profoundest teachers of the Law. But his greatness was only of yesterday ; he had no distinguished ancestors to show that he was worthy of the dignity of Patriarch. The college therefore chose a very young member, Eleazar ben Azariah, who at that time must have been only in his sixteenth year. The choice was made on account of his noble descent from a long line of ancestors, w^hich reached to Ezra, the regenerator of Judaism, a further motive for his election being his immense riches and the consideration in which he was held by the Roman authorities. Eleazar was not wanting in character and understanding, and was therefore considered worthy to succeed Gamaliel. This deposition and election had great results, and the day on which these events took place was considered of such importance by after-comers that it was known by the simple designation, " that day." It seems that the college of the Synhedrion, perhaps on the suggestion of Joshua, again revised those laws which, through the influence of Gamaliel, had been decided according to the spirit of the school of Hillel. The collco^e, which at that time consisted of the extraordinary number of seventy-two mem- bers, therefore undertook the revision of one-sided laws, and examined those who were in possession of traditions. More than twenty persons are recorded to have given testimony before the col- CH, XIII. JOSHUA AND GAMALIEL. 343 lege as to the traditions which had been handed down. In many points the majority of the college took middle ground between the opposing doc- trines of the schools of Shammai and Hillel, and they decided " neither like the one nor like the other." With regard to other contested questions it ap- peared that Hillel himself, or his school, had re- nounced their own views, and had been inclined to follow the Shammaites. The witnesses with regard to the Halachas seem to have been formally ex- amined, and perhaps their evidence was even writ- ten down. The testimony of witnesses on this day bears the name Adoyot (evidence of witnesses), or Bechirta (best choice), and the code drawn up is without doubt the earliest collection. One recog- nizes in its contents the ancient and primitive form of the traditions. The laws are put together quite promiscuously, and without any other connection than the name of the person who handed them down. The day of the assembly of witnesses was also of general importance, on account of two questions which were discussed. The first question arose thus. A heathen of Ammonite descent came before the meeting, asking whether he could be legally accepted as a proselyte. Gamaliel had turned him away with the sentence of the written law, "Moab- ites and Ammonites may not be received into the congregation of God, even in the tenth generation." The disputants treated the question with warmth, and Gamaliel endeavored to have his view carried. Joshua, however, carried his view that the sentence of the Law no longer applied to those times, as, through the aggressions of their conquerors, all nations had become mixed together and confused beyond recognition. The second question concerned the holiness of the two writings ascribed to King Solomon, Ecclesiastes (Kohelet), and the Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim). The school of Shammai 344 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIII. had not recognized them as holy. This old contest was now taken up by the College of Seventy-two, which had not approved of the decisions of Hillel, but it is not clearly known with what result. Later on these Halachas were included in the collection (Canon) of the Holy Writings, after which the Canon was completed and several writings in the Hebrew language were rejected as Apocrypha, such as the proverbs of Sirach, the first book of the Maccabees, and several others. It is a noble characteristic of Gamaliel, which his contemporaries readily recognized, that notwith- standing the many insults he received on " that day," he did not for one moment feel a desire, from petty revenge, to retire from his office of teacher. He took part in the discussions as before, little prospect as there was for him to carry through his ideas in the midst of an assemblage which was so opposed to him. But in the eager controversies of the day he no doubt became con- vinced that his great severity had estranged the others from him, and that he had thereby sup- pressed many a true opinion ; he felt his courage broken and he determined to yield. He therefore went to the most respected members of the Syn- hedrion, to apologize for his offensive demeanor. He visited his chief opponent, Joshua, who was fol- lowing his handicraft of needle-making. Gamaliel, who had grown up in riches, could not suppress his surprise at seeing so learned a man engaged in such heavy work, and said, " Is it thus thou makest thy living?" Joshua took the opportunity frankly to put before him the indifference shown to the sad condition of several worthy men — "It is bad enough," said Joshua, " that thou hast only just dis- covered it. Woe to the age, whose leader thou art, that thou dost not know of the cares of the learned and what difficulty they have to support themselves." Joshua had uttered the same reproach when Gama- CH. XIII. GAMALIEL REINSTATED. 345 liel had admired his astronomical knowledge ; he had modestly repudiated his admiration, and pointed out two pupils who possessed distinguished mathe- matical attainments, but who hardly had bread and clothes. Gamaliel at last besought his enraged opponent to forgive him, out of consideration for the highly honored house of Hillel. Joshua there- upon expressed himself as satisfied, and promised to work for Gamaliel's reinstatement in the posi- tion of Patriarch. The next step was to induce the newly-elected Nasi to give up his dignity, upon which he had only just entered. There was a cer- tain amount of delicacy in making the suggestion to him. Akiba, who was ever ready to be of service, undertook the delicate commission, the execution of which, however, was not made at all difficult for him. For hardly had Eleazar, the newly-elected Patriarch, heard that peace was made between Gamaliel and his chief enemy, than he was Imme- diately prepared to return to private life ; he even offered to pay a visit to Gamaliel, attended by the whole College. The arrangement made between the Patriarch and Eleazar was that the former should always preside for the first two weeks, and hold the classes, and that the latter, as Vice-President, should do the same in the third week. In this way the strife ended ; it had arisen neither from ambition nor pride, but only from an erroneous view of the Patriarch's functions. These disagree- ments were soon forgotten, and thenceforward Ga- maliel lived in peace with the members of the Syn- hedrion. Perhaps the position of affairs under the Emperor Domitian had diverted the public attention from internal matters, and caused the necessity for union to be felt, in order to avert the dangers which threatened from without. Gamaliel represented in this circle of scholars that desire for unity and authority which might regulate from one center the entire religious and 346 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIII. national life of the people. His brother-in-law, Eliezer, son of Hyrcanus, represented the other party, namely, those who maintained their own views and refused to submit to universally binding enact- ments. From his earliest youth Eliezer had devoted himself to the acquirement of Halachas, and these he impressed so firmly on his memory that, as he him- self said, not a grain of them should be lost. His teacher, Jochanan, therefore called him " a sealed cistern which lets no drop pass." It was in accord- ance with this method that Eliezer taught at Lydda (Diospolis), a place which had formerly been a race- course. When he was questioned as to a law, he either replied as he had been taught by his teachers, or openly acknowledged " I do not know ; I have not been told." During his stay once in Caesarea Philippi in Upper Galilee, thirty questions were put to him for decision, to which he replied, " To twelve of these I can give the decision which has been handed down to me ; for the other eighteen I have no tradition." Being asked whether he only taught what had been handed down to him, he replied, " You compel me now to impart something which has not been communicated to me ; for know that in my whole life I have never taught a single word which has not been handed down to me by my teachers." In order to escape troublesome ques- tions which he did not know how to answer, he would put cross-questions from which could be seen his disinclination to discuss the matter. He was once asked whether an illegitimate child could suc- ceed to property, and he asked in return, "Whether it would be legally considered as a brother." To the question whether one might paint a house white after the destruction of the Temple, he put the cross-question whether one would paint a grave, thus keeping firm to his rule never to pronounce a decision which had not been made certain to him by oral tradition. To the keenest deductions he usually I CH. XIII. ELIEZER BEN HYRCANUS. 347 opposed the simple reply, " I have not heard it." In order to maintain this peculiar view, he seems to have impressed on his pupils, " Keep your children from searching (Higayon) ; let them rather be brought up on the knees of the wise." Eliezer was therefore the conservative element in the Synhedrion ; he was the organ of tradition, which retained the Halachas precisely as it re- ceived them ; he was the " sealed cistern " which did not permit one drop of water to run away, nor one fresh drop to find entrance. His con- temporaries and successors gave him the hon- ored name of "Sinai," a living tablet of the Law, inscribed with unchangeable precepts. Greatly as he was respected, however, as a faithful keeper of the traditional Law, he nevertheless was somewhat isolated on account of his clinging exclusively to traditions. His colleagues had gone too far on the road pointed out by Hillel to be satisfied with merely keeping the Law ; they desired also to ex- tend and develop it. Eliezer necessarily came Into collision with the tendency of the times. He was most strongly opposed to his brother-in-law, Gama- liel, and his method of exclusion in striving for unity. On the one side was authority supported by a pow- erful will, which kept down any revolt against the law adopted ; and on the other side was the secure knowledge which finds its sanction in the past. Such opposites could not be easily reconciled, nor was Eliezer the man to give up his convictions. He was in fact reproached for his unbending character, which refused to submit to others, and which made him express his opinions in harsh terms. The res- pect which was felt for him personally made it diffi- cult to inform him of the fact that he was excom- municated, but Akiba once more undertook the office of conveying the unpleasant news. Dressed in black, he went to Eliezer and gently broke to him the sentence, and addressed him in these words, 34^ HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIII. " It appears to me that thy comrades shun thee." Eliezer understood the hint, and took the blow without murmuring ; he submitted to the excommu- nication, and Hved apart from his friends. He took only a distant interest in the discussions pursued in Jamnia. When he heard any important decision, he used to look among the treasures of the Halachas in order to confirm or dispute it. Without exercising any influence over affairs or taking part in the development of the Law, Eliezer lived his last years in flourishing material circumstances, but in a dreary state of mind. In his misery he gave utterance to a sentence which is in marked contrast to the sentiments of his comrades. " Warm thyself," he said, " at the fire of the wise, but beware of the coals that thou dost not burn thyself, for their bite is as that of the jackal, their sting like the scorpion's, their tongues like the tongues of snakes, and their words are burning coals." These are the bitter words of a pained spirit, but they do not deny to his opponents a measure of justification. A striking contrast to the stubbornness of Eliezer, and the no less unbending despotism of Gamaliel, is offered by Joshua ben Chananya. He was the yielding, pliable, peaceable element in this newly constituted Jewish body. He protected the Law and the people from one-sided and exagger- ated ideas, and became the promoter of the study of the Law and the benefactor of his people. As a young Levite of the choir he had seen the glory of the Temple, and had sung the psalms in its halls. Together with his teacher he had left Jerusalem, and after the death of the latter had founded a school in Bekiin. Here he taught his pupils, and carried on the humble handicraft of making needles, by which he maintained his family. Through his twofold occupation Joshua w^as brought into com- munication both with scholars and the common CH. XIII. JOSHUA BEN CHANANYA. 349 people ; and he endeavored to unite the two, and was the only man who possessed power over the minds and will of the masses. He was personally so ugly that an empress's daughter once asked him how it was so much wisdom was incorporated in so ugly a form. Whereupon Joshua answered that wine was not kept in casks of gold. Besides an acquaintance with tradition, he seems to have possessed some astronomical knowledge, which enabled him to calculate the irregular course of the comets. This knowledge was once of great use to him when he was on a journey. He had started on a voyage with Gamaliel, and had laid in more provisions than were usually neces- sary for the journey. The ship took an erratic course for some time, because its captain, deceived by the sight of a certain star, had steered in a wrong direction. Gamaliel's provisions having been consumed, he was astonished that this was not the case with his companion, but that, in fact, he could even spare some for him. Thereupon Joshua informed him that he had calculated on the return of a star (a comet), which reappeared every seventy years, and which would mislead the ignorant sailor, and that therefore he (Joshua) had provided himself with extra food for this emer- gency. This astronomical knowledge of Joshua appears the more surprising, as the cycles of the comets were known not even to the learned of antiquity. But Joshua was yet more distinguished for his modesty and gentleness than for knowledge and wisdom, and these qualities he displayed also in teaching. He was opposed to all exaggeration and eccentricity, and gave heed to the circum- stances of daily life when making a legal decision. Joshua warmly expressed his disapproval of the mumerous measures which the school of Shammai had introduced before the destruction of the Temple, under the name of " the eighteen 350 HISTORY OP^ THE JEWS. CH. XIII. niles," and which rendered impossible all closer relations or friendly communications with the heathens. He said, " On that day, the school of Shammai went beyond all bounds in their deci- sions ; they behaved as one who pours water into a vessel containing oil ; the more water one pours in, the more oil runs off," which meant that, by introducing a number of superfluous details, the really important things were lost. Joshua seems also to have opposed the unmeasured deductions of the Hillelite school. He said that the regu- lations respecting the Sabbath, festive offerings, and misuse of holy things, have but slight founda- tion in Holy Writ, but have many Halachas in their support. The balanced and calm character of Joshua ren- dered him especially fitted for the part of inter- mediary between the Jewish nation and Roman intolerance. He was the only teacher who sought and enjoyed the confidence of the Roman rulers ; without betraying his trust to the Romans, he yet persuaded the opposing forces to be mutually more yielding. The death of Gamaliel, and the hostile attitude of the Jews towards the Romans during the last years of the Emperor Trajan and the early years of Hadrian's reign, seem to have torn Joshua away from his petty trade, and to have put the public leadership into his hands. It is not improbable that he assumed the patriarchal position ; at least the circumstance that he removed the ban from Eliezer after the latter's death, an act which could be performed only by a patriarch, or one equal in authority, affords some ground for this supposition. Joshua's activity during the last years of his life forms an important part of the history of his times. Amongst the personages of this period, Akiba ben Joseph was unquestionably the most talented, original and influential. His youthful days and CH. XIII. RABBI AKIBA. 35 1 mental development are shrouded in darkness, as is often the case with characters who leave their mark in history ; but legends have cast sufficient light to show the obscurity of his descent. Accord- ing to one legend, he was a proselyte, and a descend- ant of Sisera, who fell through a woman's deceit. Another legend represents him as a servant of Kalba-Sabua, one of the three richest men of Jerusalem, who, by their provisions, wished to prevent for many years the famine occasioned by the siege. The legend adds that the daughter of one of these wealthy men of Jerusalem, named Rachel, had bestowed her love on Akiba, on the condition that he should follow the study of the Law. In those days this meant to acquire culture, and thus, in his fortieth year, Akiba entered a school, in order to take his first lessons to obtain the knowledge in which he was deficient. During the period of his studies the daughter of Kalba-Sabua had remained faithful to him, living in the greatest poverty, to which her father in his anger had reduced her by casting her adrift. Of these stories so much is certain, that Akiba was very ignorant until he was well advanced in years, that he and his wife lived under very straitened circum- stances, and he related later on that during the period of his ignorance, he hated those who were versed in the Law. Meanwhile his slumbering mind did not develop so quickly as the legend relates. One source declares that he was one of the pupils of Eliezer during many years, without ever showing him- self worthy of receiving an instructive reply from him. His teacher appears to have regarded him with a certain amount of contempt. Perhaps the peculiar system, pursued by Rabbi Akiba with regard to the newer Halachas, also excited Eliezer's disapproval. Akiba had learned this new system under Nachum of Gimso (or Emmaus), under whom he studied, not, 35- HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIII. indeed, for two-and-twenty years, as the legend relates. Akiba raised what was incomplete and fragmentary in this school to a complete system, and thus he stands at a turning-point in Jewish history. The peculiar system of Akiba was built on certain principles, and in fact he may be considered as the only systematic Tanai. In this system the law was not considered as a dead treasure incapable of growth or development, or, as it was in the eyes of Eliezer, a wealth of mere memories, but it formed an everlasting quarry in which, with proper means, new treasures might always be found. New laws were also no longer to be formulated by the voice of a majority, but were to be justified by and founded on the written documents of the Holy Word. As the fundamental doctrine of his system, Akiba maintained that the style of the Torah, especially in parts relating to the laws (Halachas), was quite different from that of other writings. Human lan- guage, besides the indispensable words employed, requires certain expressions, figures of speech, repetitions, and enlargements — in fact it takes a certain form which is almost unnecessary for convey- ing the writer's meaning, but which is used as a matter of taste, in order to round off the sentences and to make them more finished and artistic. In the language of the Torah, on the other hand, no weight is put on the form ; nothing is superfluous, no word, no syllable, not even a letter ; every pecu- liarity of expression, every additional word, every sign is to be regarded as of great importance, as a hint of a deeper meaning that lies buried within. Akiba added a number of explanatory and deduc- tive rules to those of Hillel and Nachum, and his additions afforded fresh means of development for the traditional law. When a deduction had been obtained by the correct use of the rules, such con- clusion might again be employed as the foundation CH. XIII. AKIBA S SYSTEM. 353 for fresh deductions, and so on, in a continuous chain. Akiba was not to be restrained in this course by any consequences whatsoever. He had opened up a new path with his system, and a new point of view. The Oral Law, of which it had been said that it hung on a hair and had no firm ground in Holy Writ, was thus placed on a firmer basis, and the dissensions concerning the Halachas were to a con- siderable degree diminished. Akiba's contempo- raries were surprised, dazzled, and inspired by his theories, which were new and yet old. Tarphon, who had at one time been the superior of Akiba, said to him, " He who departs from thee departs from life eternal ; for what has been forgotten in the handing down, that dost thou give afresh in thy explanations." It was acknowledged that the Law would have been forgotten or neglected, had not Akiba given it his support. With exaggerated enthusiasm, it was said that many enactments of law, which were unknown to Moses, were revealed to Akiba. Just as Akiba had recognized and confirmed the worth of the traditional law, he also assisted in reducing it to a methodical system and order. He laid the foundation for the possible collection of the rich material at hand. It has already been stated that the Halachas were strung together without connection or systematic grouping ; it was there- fore necessary, in order to retain the entire mass, to maintain years of intimacy with those who were acquainted with the Halachas, to be untiringly industrious, and to have a faithful memory. Akiba, however, facilitated the study of the Halachas by arranging them in groups, and thus assisted the memory. The arranging of the Halachas he carried out in two ways. He put them together according to their context, so that all Halachas concerning the Sabbath, marriage laws, divorces, and property 354 HISTORY OF TIIK I i:\VS. CH. XIII. should form independent wholes. Thus the entire matter was divided into six similar parts, each part bearing the name Masechta (Textus — Division). These divisions he arranged according to numbers, so as to give a useful aid to the memory ; thus, from four causes injuries to property might occur ; five classes of men could be excluded from the tithes of the priests ; fifteen classes of women were prevented by consanguinity from intermarrying with their brothers-in-law ; thirty-six kinds of sins are recorded in the Holy Writings as being punished by extermination. The collection of the Halachas, instituted by Akiba, was called the Mishna, or more fully Mishna of Rabbi Akiba, to distinguish it from the later collection ; in Christian circles it was known under the name of Akiba's Deuterosis. It was also called Midoth (Measures), probably on account of the numbers which form the basis of arrangement. This Mishna or Midoth, though arranged, was not written down ; the contents remained as before traditional, but an easier method was employed in classifying them. It is hardly probable that Akiba alone completed and arranged all this material. His pupils no doubt assisted in this collection which, later on, formed the foundation of the code that terminated the whole traditional system. The older Mishnas (Mishna Rishona) were often separated from the later (Mishna Acharona, or Mishna of Rabbi Akiba), and the latter were taken as the norm. The name of the new founder of the Oral Law became, through his peculiar mode of teaching, one of the most celebrated in the Jewish communities far and wide. His mysterious descent and his lowly origin only heightened the interest felt in him. The number of his hearers is exaggerated by tradition, which fixes it at twelve thousand, and even double that number, but a more modest record represents them as amounting to three hundred. Accompanied by this numerous CH. XIII. ISHMAEL BEN ELISIIA. 355 band of disciples, Akiba again visited his wife Rachel, who for some years had lived apart from him in the greatest poverty. The scene of their meeting is touchingly described, and her hard- hearted father, Kalba-Sabiia, proud of such a son- in-law, is said to have bequeathed to him his whole property. From this time Akiba lived in great riches with his wife, who had previously been so poor that she slept on a bed of straw. His grati- tude to his sorely tried wife was in proportion to the sacrifices which she had made for him. Akiba had his fixed domicile in Bene-Berak, where his school was situated. The position of this spot, which, through him, became so celebrated, is supposed to be southeast of Joppa. Others place it yet more to the south, near Ashdod ; but Akiba was a member of the Synhedrion in Jabne, and it was but seldom that any measure was deter- mined without him. In the development of Jewish law, in which Akiba had wrought such changes, Ishmael ben Elisha took an important part. He demanded the explanation of the written law from the common-sense view, and was thus one of the chief opponents of Akiba's system. According to Ishmael, the divine precepts of the Torah are expressed in human language, in which various figures of speech, linguistic repetitions and oratorical modes of expression occur, on which, however, no weight should be laid, as they are a mere matter of form. He thus put aside the various deductions of Akiba, which were based on an appa- rently superfluous (pleonastic) word, or even letter of the alphabet. Akiba deduced, for example, the punishment of death by fire against the adulterous married daughter of a priest from one letter of the alphabet, on which Ishmael remarked — " On account of one letter of the alphabet thou wouldst inflict death by burning ! " Ishmael had his own school, which was known under the name of Be-Rabbi 356 HISTOKV Ol' IIIK JKWS. CM. XIII. Ishmael. He there developed the rules which were to be employed in explaining and applying the Written Law. He amplified Hillel's seven rules of interpretation into thirteen, by subdividing one into several, while he rejected another, and on his own authority added one which was quite new. The thirteen deductive rules of Ishmael are re- cognized as the complete form, but the system of Akiba, although partly opposed to it, was not thereby excluded from use, for both were equally employed by succeeding teachers. There is but little else known of Ishmael. He belongs to a circle which, doubtless for political reasons, was relegated by the Synhedrion from Jabne to Usha. He subsequently paid for his love for his nation and the Law with his life. Akiba, though an opponent of the theories held by him, gave a funeral address in praise of him, and was impressed with the idea that a similar fate would soon befall himself. These five men — Gamaliel, the arranger ; Eliezer, the strict upholder of tradition ; Joshua, the con- ciliator ; Akiba, the systematizer ; and Ishmael, the clear thinker, were the center-point of that period ; they formed the rays which, starting from one point, diverge in order to be finally reunited in another. The maintaining and cultivation of the inherited Law was a point of union for all men of activity and intelligence, and to it they turned all their energy, mind and power. The numerous teachers of this second generation of Tanaites were called the Armed (Baale Tressin), because the Synhedrion and schools constituted a battle-field on which the combatants contested for the Law (machai nomikai). The group was composed partly of members of the Synhedrion who had a voice in every decision ; partly of ordained members who, through the ceremony of "laying on of hands," were elevated to the rank of "wise men," from whose midst the college was wont to fill up vacancies ; and, lastly, there were CH. XIII. THE TANAITES. 357 disciples who sat on the ground as listeners at " the feet of the masters." Amongst the most important members was Tar- phon of Lydda ; he was rich and generous, pas- sionate and hasty — a zealous enemy of the Jewish Christians. F"urther, there were Eliezer of Modin, an authority on Agadic explanations ; and Jose, the Galilaean, whose heart was soft and full of love for humanity. There was also Isebab, the clerk of the Synhedrion ; Chuzpit, the public orator or inter- preter ; Judah ben Baba, the Chassidsean (he proba- bly belonged to the order of the Essenes) ; Cha- nanya ben Teradion, who, together with those just named, suffered the death of a martyr. Besides these were Eleazar Chasma and Jochanan ben Gudgada, both of whom were celebrated on account of their deep mathematical knowledge and their poverty, but they were put in possession of lucrative posts by the patriarch at the express intervention of Joshua ; Jochanan ben Nuri, a zealous disciple of Gamaliel ; Joseph ben Kisma, an admirer of the Romans ; and, lastly, Ilai and Chalafta, both of whom became better known through their sons. From the class of dis- ciples only four distinguished themselves in history, Samuel, the younger, and three others — all of whom were named Simon. The disciples consisted of those who, for some reason, had not been amongst the ordained, and who were thus excluded from certain functions, such as membership of the Synhedrion and the holding of certain judicial offices. To these was denied the title of Rabbi — equivalent to the title of doctor in our times, but not corresponding to the title of Reverend. The title of Rabbi was, in fact, first used from the time of the destruction of the Temple, and was probably introduced by the disci- ples of Jochanan ben Zakkai, who were called master by their adherents. Samuel the Younger (Hakaton) was a man of rare modesty and abnegation, a " true disciple of 358 HISTORY OK tup: jews. CH. XIII. Hillcl"; ho was chiefly known for his condemna- tion of the Jewish Christians, and for the prophetic glance, which, when on his death-bed, he cast into the gloomy future. He uttered the prophetic words : " Simon and Ishmael are doomed to destruction ; the nation is threatened with anarchy, and heavy persecutions will follow." Those around knew not what to make of his utterances, but he foresaw the coming troubles under Hadrian. Samuel died child- less, and the Patriarch himself delivered an address in his memory. Simon ben Nanos was renowned on account of his intimate acquaintance with the law of the individual, and Ishmael recommended all those who were learned in the Law to cultivate an acquaintance with ben- Nanos. Simon ben Asai was an enemy to marriage, and, together with Simon ben Zoma, he became absorbed in the theosophic speculations of the times. Amongst the great number of teachers of the Law, of whom many lost their lives, only one is named as having deserted his people, and thus having attained to undesirable notoriety. This was Elisha ben Abuya, better known by his apostate name Acher, who became a persecutor of the Law and of those who adhered to it. Outside of Judaea, and particularly in Babylon, there existed centers for the growth of spiritual activity. Judah ben Bathyra, who taught in Nisibis, a town in Babylon, was probably a descendant of the family Bene Bathyra, which, in the time of King Herod, had been at the head of the Synhedrion. In Nahardea, Nehemia is named as the teacher of the traditional Law in Beth-Deli. From this center there seems to have originated, as will be shown later on, the chief opposition to Trajan's plans for conquest in the dis- trict of the Euphrates. In Asia Minor, likewise, the study of the Halachas was pursued, though the names of its teachers have not been preserved. Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia (also called Mazaca), ap- CH. XIII. SCHOLASTIC ACTIVITY. 359 pears to have been the chief seat of this branch of study. Rabbi Akiba, during his journey in Asia Minor, found in the latter place a man learned in traditions, who held a discussion with him concerning the Hala- chas. The Jews of Eg)'pt, who had closed the temple of Onias at the command of Vespasian, and had thus lost their seat of learning, appear to have pursued their studies of the Halachas in Alexandria. They continued to occupy themselves with the translation of such writings as resembled the Holy Writ or the Apocryphal Literature. Sirach translated the say- ings of his grandfather into Greek, and others translated the book of Susannah and the Letter of Baruch. Additions were also made to the Books of Esther and Daniel. These later additions to Hebrew poetry were considered by Christians as part of the Bible. In Judsea, however, no atten- tion was paid to these foreign schools, but the Synhedrion of Jabne was regarded as the supreme authority. CHAPTER XIV. INNER LIFE. Inner Life of the Jews — Sphere of Action of the Synhedrion and the Patriarch — The Order of Members and Moral Condition of the Common People — Relation of Christianity towards Judaism — Sects — Jewish Christians — Pagan Christians — Ebionites — Naza- renes — The Gnostics — Regulations of the Synhedrion against Christianity — Proselytes at Rome — Aquilas and his translation of the Bible— Berenice and Titus — Domitian — Josephus and the Romans. The Synhedrion of Jamnia had become the heart of the Jewish nation, whence Hfe and activity streamed forth to the most distant communities. Thence proceeded all arrangements and decisions relating to religious matters, which were to become popular, and the observance of which was to be ensured. The nation regarded the Synhedrion as a remnant of the State, and paid to the Nasi (the President), a member of the house of Hillel and a descendant of David, an amount of reverence such as might be shown to royalty. The Greek title Ethnarch, which means Ruler of the People, and which approaches nearest to the description of a king, seems to show that with the Patriarchate was associated the princely dignity. Therefore the people were proud of the house of Hillel, because through its mem- bers the ruling power remained in the house of David, and thus the prediction of the patriarch Jacob was verified, "that the scepter should not de- part from the tribe of Judah." After the Patriarch came his representative Ab-beth-din, and the Chacham (the Wise), whose special office is not known. The Patriarch had the right of appointing judges and the officers of the congregation, and probably supervised their actions. The Roman 360 CH. XIV. AUTHORITY OF THE PATRIARCH. ^6 1 J' government had not yet Interfered with the com- munal arrangements of the Jews so far as to cause the judicial offices to be performed by Romans. The authority of the Patriarch left the power of the teacher, however, undiminished in certain of the schools ; they could confer on their disciples the dignities of judge or teacher of the people, and the assent of the Patriarch was not required. The master laid his hand on the head of the pupil, and this ordination was called Semicha, or Minui, and meant Nomination, Ordination, or Promotion. The ordained bore the title Zaken (Elder), which was almost equivalent to that of Senator, for through this ordination they obtained the right of member- ship of the Council when the choice should fall on them. The chief activity of the Patriarch was felt at the public meetings of the Synhedrion. He occupied the highest place, supported by the chief mem- bers who were seated around in a half-circle. Behind these members, whose number at this time was probably seventy, there were several rows of the ordained, behind whom stood the pupils, and at the back the people seated on the ground wit- nessed the proceedings. The Patriarch opened the meeting either by intro- ducing some yubject of discussion from the Laws, or by inviting the members to speak by the for- mula "Ask." If he himself spoke first, he uttered some sentences softly to the Meturgeman, who then developed and explained them in an orato- rical manner. Any person had the right to put questions : while the discussion was being held the assembly would divide into groups and debate on the matter. The president had the right to close the discussion, and to bring about its conclusion by saying, "The subject has been sufficiently dis- cussed." After the conclusion no one was per- mitted to return to theoretical discussions. It o 62 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIV. appears that the ordained members also had the riofht of votinof. In votinof on criminal cases all votes were taken, the youngest members begin- ning, so that they, by coming first, might not be guided by the most influential men ; in other mat- ters this method was reversed. Such was the procedure at meetings of the Synhedrion when questions were to be answered, disputed laws to be settled, new arrangements introduced, or old ones to be set aside. The Patriarch also exercised an important func- tion in fixing the dates of the festivals. The Jewish Calendar was not permanently fixed, but had to be regulated from time to time. The year was in fact partly solar, partly lunar, the festivals being dependent on the course of the moon, and on the influence of the sun on the harvests, and the vary- ing course of the solar and lunar years had to be equalized. Thus, when the solar year exceeded the lunar by a month, which occurred every two or three years, a month was inserted, and this leap- year contained thirteen lunar months. The length of the months was also uncertain ; a month, ac- cording to tradition, was to commence when the new moon became visible, and this period was decided partly by astronomical calculations and partly by the evidence of actual witnesses. As soon as the witnesses reported to the Synhe- drion that the first streak of the young moon was visible, that day was fixed as the first day of the month, provided it concurred with calcu- lations made. If no witnesses presented them- selves, the doubtful day was counted in the current month. The month thus contained twenty-nine or thirty days. The new moon was celebrated in a solemn manner, and was announced in earlier times by means of bonfires, which could easily be used in a mountainous country throughout the land. Burning torches were seen on the Mount of Olives, CH. XIV. PUBLIC WORSHIP. 363 as also on Mount Sartaba (Alexandrion), and on Mount Tabor, and so on, as far as Beth-Beltis, on the Babylonian frontier. On the doubtful day between the two months the Babylonian community looked out for the signal, and repeated it for the benefit of those who lived afar. The congregations in Egypt, in Asia Minor and in Greece, however, could not use bonfires, they were uncertain as to the day on which the new moon fell, and, therefore, they kept two days instead of one. The intercalary month was announced by the Patriarch in a circular letter to the community. The Patriarch Gamaliel introduced the use of set prayers. Although some of the prayers were very ancient, and were used in the Temple at the time of the burnt-offerings, yet the chief prayers of those days were not formulated, but each man was left to pray in whatever words his feelings dictated to him. Gamaliel introduced the daily prayers, the eighteen Berachoth (blessings), which are used in the synagogues at the present day. It is not known by whom the prayers were introduced for the Sabbath and the Festivals. Prayers were universally considered as a substitute for offerings, and were called " the offerings of the heart." The public service was very simple ; there were no offi- cial readers, any one who had attained a certain age and was of good repute could pray ; the con- gregation called on him to do so, and he was named " the delegate of the community." He stood before the ark in which lay the scrolls of the Law, and, therefore, to pray was called " to go before the ark." The Law, with the exception of the sacrificial sys- tem, was strictly enforced. The tithes were paid to the descendants of Aaron, the corners of the fields were left standing for the poor, and every three years the poor-tithes were paid. In remembrance of the Temple, for whose restoration the most earnest hopes were awakened, many observances were 364 HISTORY OF THE JEWS. CH. XIV. retained, which could only be of meaning there. All those who fulfilled strictly the requirements of the Law, giving up the tenth part of all the fruits which they possessed, formed a sort of order [Chabtirah), the members of which were called fellows ( C haberim) . In contradistinction to this order were the peas- ants— the slaves of the soil. A striking picture is given of the neglected mental and moral state of these peasants, to which the frequent rebellions during the last years of the Jewish state no doubt contributed. They only observed such laws as appealed to their rude senses, and knew nothing of a higher life. The members of the order would not eat or live with them, and even kept aloof from them, that their clothes might not be made unclean by contact. It was said by contemporaries that the hatred between the two classes was stronger than that felt between Jews and heathens. Thus left to themselves and cut off from the higher classes and from all share in communal life, without a leader or adviser, the peasants easily fell under the influence of young Chris- tianity. Jesus and his disciples had especially turned towards the unprotected class, and had there found the greater number of their followers. How flattering it must have been to these neglected beings to hear that on their account the Messiah had come, that he had been executed so that they might have a share in the good things of which they had been deprived, more especially of happi- ness in a better world. The Law deprived them of their rights, while Christianity opened the kingdom of heaven to them ! The teachers of the Law, absorbed In the task of upholding the Law and Jewish life, overlooked the element from which a mighty foe to the Law would arise. Before they realized it they found an enemy on their own ground, who was desirous of CH. XIV. JEWISH AND PAGAN CHRISTIANS. 365 obtaining the treasure which they had watched with such devotion. The development of Christianity as a branch of Judaism, drawing sustenance from its roots, constitutes, so long as its followers belonged to the Jewish people, a part of Jewish history. Of the small group of a hundred and twenty persons, who, after the death of Jesus, had formed his sole followers, a Christian community had been formed, especially through the energy of Paul. He endeavored to win over the heathens by the belief in the resurrection of Christ, and the Jews by the belief that the actual appearance of the Messiah had proved the inefficacy of the Jewish Law. Christianity could no longer be contemptuously overlooked, but began to be a new element in history. But the doctrine of Paul that the Jewish Law was unnecessary, had sown the seed of dissen- sion in primitive Christianity, and the followers of Jesus were divided into two great parties, which were again divided into smaller sects, with special views and modes of life. Sectarianism did not show itself for the first time in Christianity, as is supposed, in the second century, but was present at its very commencement, and was a necessary result of fundamental differences. The two great parties, which were arrayed in sharp opposition, were, on the one hand, the Jewish Christians, and, on the other, the Pagan Christians. The Jewish Christians, belonging to the original community, which was composed of Jews, were closely connected with Judaism. They observed the Jewish laws in all their details, and pointed to the example of Jesus, who himself had lived according to Jewish laws. They put these words into the mouth of the founder of the religion, " Sooner shall heaven and earth disappear, than that an iota or a grain of the Law shall not be fulfilled"; further, "I have not come to destroy the Law of Moses, but to fulfil it." They entertained a hostile spirit towards the Pagan 366 HISTORY OK rilK JEWS. CH. XIV. Christians, and applied to them one of the sayings of Jesus, " He who alters any, even the most trivial of the laws, and teaches mankind accordingly, shall be the last in the kingdom of heaven ; but he who obeys them, and teaches them, shall be considered ereat in the kincjdom of heaven." Even the devo- tion of Jewish Christians to Jesus was not of a nature to separate them from Judaism. They con- sidered him as a holy and morally great man, who was descended in the natural way from the race of David. This son of David had advanced the kingdom of heaven because he taught men to live modestly and in poverty, like the Essenes, from whose midst, in fact, Christianity had sprung. From their contempt of riches and preference for poverty they bore the name of Ebionites or Ebionim (poor), which was travestied by their Christian opponents into a nickname meaning "poor in spirit." Fearing to be eclipsed by the other party, the primitive Jewish Christian community sent out messengers to the foreign communities, in order to impress on them not only the Messianic character of Jesus, but also the duty which they owed to the Law, Thus they founded Judseo-Christian colonies, of which that at Rome in time became the chief In opposition to these were the heathen Christians. As the term " Son of God," as used in the language of the prophets, contained an idea entirely incom- prehensible to them, they interpreted it according to their own mode of thought, as meaning God's actual Son, a conception which was as clear and acceptable to the heathen as it was strange and repulsive to the Jews. When once the idea of a Son of God was accepted, it became necessary to eliminate from the life of Jesus all those traits which appertained to him as a human being, such as his natural birth from parents, and thus the state- ment developed that this Son of God was born of a virgin through the Holy Ghost. The first great CH. XIV. EBIONITE AND HELLENIC CONGREGATIONS. T^Sj difference between the Ebionites and the heathen Christians lay in their views concerning' the person of Jesus ; the one honoring him as the son of David, the other worshiping him as the Son of God. The second point turned on the stress to be laid on the laws of Judaism. The heathen party paid but little attention to the laws relating to the community of property and contempt for riches, which were the chief ends of Ebionite Christianity. The heathen or Hellenic Christians had their chief seat in Asia Minor, namely, in seven cities, which, in the symbolical language of that time, were called the seven stars and the seven golden lamps. Ephesus was the chief of these heathen Christian coneregfations. Between the Ebionite and Hellenic congregations, which possessed in common only the name of the founder, there arose strained relations and a mutual dislike, which became more bitter with time. Paul and his disciples were fiercely hated by the Jewish Christians. They did not cease, even after his death, to use expressions of contempt against the circumcised apostle who only spread error. Admiring the unity and solidarity which prevailed in the Jamnian Synhedrion, in contrast to the dissensions which reigned in the Christian community, a Jewish Christian wrote : " Our fel- low-tribesmen follow to the present day the same law concerning the unity of God and the proper mode of life, and cannot form a different opinion of the meaning of the Scriptures. It is only according to prescribed rules that they endeavor to bring into agreement the sayings of Scripture, but they do not permit a man to teach unless he has learnt beforehand how to explain the Holy Scriptures. They have but one God, one Law, one hope. If we do not follow the same course, our word of truth will, through the variety of opinion, be shattered. This I know, not as a prophet, but because I see the root of the evil ; 36